One Last Summer
by embers-of-the-flame
Summary: "Summer!" My head shot up at the sound of my name. "Ben!" My normally calm voice shock from fear and was laced with concern. All the while I was thinking "No, no, why is he here! He's got to get out of here before they-" The train of thought was stopped when I felt my hands be pulled behind my back. They were here.
1. Prologue: What's happening to me?

**One Last Summer**

By Ember

**Prologue**

**What's happening to me?**

It is so cold… freezing cold… something feels so off… what's happening? Darkness… as of now my reality was the darkness that was swallowing me and eating me whole as if I was nothing more than a piece of sugary candy. I was shivering, goose bumps covered my skin. Was this what death felt like?

Then, out of nowhere, I felt pain… a pain that felt like lava was being poured over my body and was flowing through my bloodstream. I want to scream, but I can't. I want to run, but where would I go. I was lost in the endless darkness. Funny how that works… you fight the darkness and evil that goes against everything righteous and truthful in the world, only to be lost in it soon afterward.

Something in the distance catches my eye. It was white, pure snow white. Then I realize what it was… it was light; finally I had someplace to go, and so I went towards it, desperately wanting to get out of the darkness. Grimacing with every single step I took do to the lava-like pain still coursing through my veins.

With every step I took closer to the light, the less pain I felt and the warmer everything was. Only then did I realize what that light was. The light was the end… the end of everything for me; the light, meant death. I don't want to die, but the warmth and pain relief is so welcoming.

"Stay with me…" A faint voice called from the darkness. I turned, that voice was so familiar. I know that voice, but who owns it, the darkness prevents me from telling.

"Pichu pi…" Another familiar voice called out to me. Once again the darkness prevented me from telling who it was.

"You have to stay with me…" That voice sounded as though it was on the verge of crying, and that was the voice that did it. I turned away from the light and walked away the pain and cold started to return. Whoever those voices were, I would do as they ask and stay with them. At least I would for as long as I could hold out.

Hold up, I'm getting way ahead of myself. Let's rewind this like you would with a CD, let's go back to the beginning, maybe then you could understand how I got into this mess.

XoXoX

Well... that's the prologue of my first story. Hope you enjoyed it, and with any luck I'll see you later.

Oh, almost forgot about something entirely, thank you fanfiction for alowing me to edit chapters.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own nintendo or the group that made the Pokemon games, if I did the games would have a much darker story.


	2. Chapter 1: It all started then

Hey people it's Ember. So I have decided on a schedule for updating this that _should_ work; what I'm going to do is update it twice a week, on random days. For instance, this week I'm updating saterday and munday; while next week I might update tuesday and firday. If you guys have any problems with this idea, go ahead and tell me via pm or comment. Speacking of comments, I'm just going to go ahead and reply to the reviews, to anyone that just wants to read the story. and hasn't started to yet(I salute to for being able to withstand my rambling) you can go ahead to the story now.

**Akozu Heiwa:** Um... I didn't really mean for it to be an obliviashipping story, seeing as I don't really like shipping stuff, but... okay. If you want I can attempt to have a little fluff, nothing serious, but a brother/sister kind of bond, but I can't gerantie that it'll be written well.

**Ranger Belle:** Wow. I'm not so sure about that being the best opening yet, I'm flattered, to say the least, but I'm not sure I desserve it. I can't tell you who the voices were, except one that should be painfully obvious, because then I'd be spoiling a small part of the plot. As for if I'm going to kill Summer, well,maybe I don't know yet, but I can tell you this: it's a tragedy, someone is going to die. For me, someone has to die for it to be called a tragedy. As for your last question... all I can say is, read on my friend, and you will see if your guess is correct.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own nintendo or the group that makes the pokemon games, if I did the main games would have a better plot.(wait, plot in a mainstream pokemon game? what is this madness?)

Word Count: 1,963

XoXoXoX

**One Last Summer**

By Ember

**Chapter 1**

**It all started then**

It all started at Oblivia, and for the most part, that's where it ended. Well, actually it started at the Pokémon Rangers Head Quarters a few weeks prior, but that's unimportant. Actually, come to think of it, it is a little important. Long story short, Professor Hastings sent my partner, Ben, and I to Oblivia to stop the Pokémon Pinchers, we beat them and now everything's at peace in Oblivia, and Ben and I got a vacation.

I was sitting on the beach located on Renbow Island, the one that faces where Dolce Island used to be. The entire island was obliterated a few weeks ago, five to be exact. Five weeks… in all honesty I couldn't believe it. Everything that happened on that mission lasted a good week in total. A single week was all it took to find Ben, find the guardian signs and save all of Oblivia , except Dolce Island.

"Pichu?" I turned my head and looked down, on the warm sand was the small Pichu with a blue ukulele, a single question was written as clear as the cloudless sky on his face. 'You okay?'

A faint smile crossed my face as the sea breeze blew my milk chocolate colored hair into my bark brown eyes. "I'm fine, Pichu. I guess I'm just still having a hard time believing that Dolce Island is gone. I mean all it took was one hit from that laser and it sunk, the first place I landed on Oblivia and the place I met you and Booker is gone." A sigh escaped my slightly parted lips. "I know I should be over it by now, but still." My somber gaze returned to the exact spot where the island used to be. "All those Pokémon lost a home that day, and I couldn't stop the laser from firing because I was too darn slow." The last four words were spoken harshly laced with self-hatred.

The electric Pokémon climbed onto my lap and put his head against my stomach, nuzzling me. That slight smile from earlier grew a little so that it wasn't invisible to the world. "Pichu pi." The little Pokémon whispered. I think he was telling me that it wasn't my fault and to stop thinking that it was, but it _was_ my fault. If I had just been faster, if I had just gotten on Latias and flew up to the bridge and had her break the window, if I had just done _something_ instead of just standing there enraged listening to Purple Eye's threats then Dolce Island might still be there and all the Pokémon that lived there could still have their original home. My smile vanished at thought.

It was getting late and the sun had started to set over the horizon, the air was becoming a little cooler, but the sand was still fairly warm from the day light. I just sat there, with Pichu still on my lap, watching the sun fall out of the sky and the moon rise behind me. The sky changed from blue, to pink, to gold, to black, and the stars started to ignite like lanterns, one by one until the sky was cluttered and set alight from their flames that would vanish with the suns rising in the morning.

A yawn broke the silence that had lasted for a good ninety minutes as we watched the sunset. I looked down to the small electric Pokémon on my lap- the little guy had curled up and looked like he was about to fall asleep right then and there. "Alright little guy," I whisper softly patting his yellow head "I guess you're right." The smile from earlier that had disappeared chose to return. "Time to go inside."

With a deep breath I gently picked up Pichu and stood up cradling him in my arms against my blue tank top that had a thick white strip coming down the center of it. In all honesty I didn't want to go inside, it was such a pleasant night, clear, not to cold, not to humid or hot, you could hear the Kricketots and Hoothoots from the Teakwood Forest, but… I'm only human, and that means I've got to sleep just like any other living creature.

I walked towards the cabin that was nearby, it was Booker's place, he told me I could stay there if I wanted, so I did. As quietly as I could I opened the wooden door and walked inside, sliding it closed on the way in, Booker tended to head to bed as soon as all the stars had been lite, and at this point they were. Slowly I tip toed past the boat that was still in progress to where the improvised bed they made for me was. Frankly I didn't mind that I was in the room with were all the boat construction took place, it always left the air smelling like woodchips and oak, 'sides I always woke up before Booker and his assistant, Nick, did. Nick's would have been asleep by now, he always went to bed a few minutes after Booker, guess it's because he wants to be a perfect assisant or something, I never bothered to ask.

Gently I place the tiny mouse Pokémon on the cream colored pillow next to the makeshift bed and cover him in a white cloth blanket. He was already asleep by the time his little head touched the pillow. I clambered on the makeshift bed that was laid out of me and tucked myself under the black fleece blanket, my head on the sand colored pillow. It felt like ages before I could finally get to sleep, I don't know why, but I had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach; it was like when you get this bad feeling about something before it even happens, and you just can't shake it. Eventually I managed to push it back far enough so that I could let sleep take me. Though it was by no means peaceful.

XoXoX

There was a man dressed in a deep green, the green of pine trees, and next to him was a girl dressed in gray, soot gray. They were talking about something in front of a metal door. The lighting was dim, casting a plethora of shadows onto the walls that were laced withpipes and wires that formed intricate mazes. The male and female seemed frantic about something, the reason why, was unknown. I couldn't hear their voices, but I wanted to, I wanted to hear what they were saying, even though this was a dream.

That's when a scream tore through the air. It was unlike any scream I'd ever heard. It sounded like someone was screaming bloody murder, but at the same time it was a scream of pure pain and molten agony. The door slowly opened revealing a man dressed in soil brown. When the door closed it was slammed three of them together looked like someone decided to try and make camouflage and all they did was spill three colors of paint on a wall. The screams could still be heard in the background, though, even though they were muted by the door.

The girl in gray started a conversation with the man who just came out of the room, he seemed furious, boiling over with anger. The man in green joined in. It was as though they were trying to calm him down. But by the looks of it trying to set fire to water would have worked better. All the while the screams continued, though they seemed to be getting quieter and quieter over time, like, whoever it was, was loosing their voice. Part of me wanted to see what was happening in that room behind the closed door. But the other part seemed to be against it completely.

I took a step forward, then another, and another, it was like I couldn't control myself. The three people didn't slow down my movement; in fact it was as though they weren't even there. My body just seemed to phase through them. The screams still echoed from behind the door, I stopped my moving and just listened to it. For some reason the voice sounded familiar. That's when my body started to move again, and phased through the sealed metal door.

All I could see in the room was shadows, shadows, and more shadows. There was nothing in here. Yet there was. Something was moving against the farthest wall. The screams, which had now turned into whimpers and sobs, were coming from it. The closer I got, the colder it seemed to get. Chills were constantly being sent down my spine and my skin was riddled with goose bumps. Soon I could just barely make out the figure. It was…

XoXoX

I sat up, faster than a lightning bolt, in my makeshift bed. The blanket was on the floor in a heap along with the pillow. Pichu was right next to me, his small paws on my arms, looking at me with questioning eyes. Slowly I raised my hand to my head, only to find it covered in a thin layer of cold sweat. "Pichu?"

"I'm fine, Pichu. Just a bad dream." That was a complete lie. I wasn't 'fine' by any stretch of the word. But, Pichu seemed satisfied by that answer, so he snuggled up into the pillow and fell asleep again within seconds. That dream had actually scared me a little. "Who was that person…?" I whisper under my breath looking at the unfinished boat. About ten questions were making their way through my mind as fast as lightning, maybe even more that I weren't able to grasp, but I didn't want to worry about it. Not now, not here.

Slowly I rose to my feet and walked over to the door, kneeling down to put on my yellow socks, and blue sneakers with a red strip coming down most of the center and a white strap crossing over horizontally over the middle. With a deep breath I stepped out the front door and closed it as quietly as possible. I needed some time to myself. Maybe latter I could tell Ben about this. Then again… why should I bug him with something as silly as a nightmare? I lowered my head to the ground, staring at the dark tan sand. "Still…"

Maybe I should tell him… but maybe I shouldn't. Who were those three people? Why did they have that person, and were clearly hurting them? Who was that person anyway? If only I hadn't woke up, then, maybe, I would know."Stop it, Summer." I mutter to myself. "It was just a dream, get over it." I raised my head and turned my gaze over to the ocean. "What if… it wasn't a dream…?" An almost silent chuckle escaped my lips. "_Course it was a dream, what else could it be?"_ My mind seemed to reason.

The sun was starting to rise, bringing with it a new day. "Maybe I should tell Ben… nah… he shouldn't have to worry about it. 'Sides he'll just tell me I'm overreacting over a little dream." With that matter being settled I continued to walk on the sand. Not realizing what was about to happen would cause me, not only more sleepless nights, but everything. And it would make me wonder: why didn't I tell anyone?

XoXoXoX

Thanks for reading, and, with any luck, I'll see you next week. Later.


	3. Chapter 2: Shelter from the storm

Hello peoples! I've got the first update for this week up(no, I never would have guessed.) To anyone who is still reading this and hasn't lost patience with it(like most people would have, even though it's only the second chapter) thank you. And to the two people who are reviewing this, thanks.

**Akozu Heiwa:** Well... I guess it's somewhat Obliviashipping now, you'll find out when you read the chapter, but I'm glad you're enjoying it at all, I'm just writing and publishing it for the sheer fun of it all.

**Ranger Belle:** Again, I honestly don't think it's that good, but, then again, you're your own worst critic. I can't really answer your questions... it would be spoiling the plot(what little I have planned of it answers your question eventually). As for your last comment on my spelling, I have one simple phrase to answer it with: I suck at spelling and grammar. Not to mention I only just found the spell check on this two days ago, I can be such a herp derp (dummy) sometimes.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Nintendo, nor do I ever _want_ to.

**Word count:** 2,155 words

XoXoXoX

**One Last Summer**

**Chapter 2**

**Shelter from the storm**

The wind was blowing harshly from the ocean. It wasn't like some gentle breeze, no it was the type of wind where you could be blown back with ease if you have an open jacket. So I had my arms wrapped around my midsection trying to keep my red jacket with white sleeves and yellow lining at the bottom to stay on. My dandelion yellow scarf, which was wrapped around my neck, was billowing in the wind. The sky looked like it was covered in a gray blanket, but it held no warmth, only a cruel chill. A storm was brewing, and the people in Cocona Village had better be prepared for it, because it looked like it would be pretty bad, then again, when have I ever been right about anything that had to do with the weather.

"HEY!" A voiced hollered. I think I jumped in surprise. The figure was getting closer, it was Ben. _"What's he doing up so early?"_ I mentally questioned _"He never wakes up at the crack of dawn, that was always me. Meh, must be because he couldn't sleep."_ "What's up, Sum?" The teenager asked when he was only a few feet away from me.

"Ben," I groaned, my cheeks an unnoticable pink "how many times have I told you not to call me Sum?" It was a rhetorical question, of course, but Ben was starting to count on his fingers how many times I had told him. An audible laugh escaped my lips and I said "It was a rhetorical question, Benji."

Ben cheeks flushed a pale shade of pink at the sound of his nickname. "How many times have I told you not to call me that, Summer?" I thought for a moment before replying.

"As many times as I've told you not to call me Sum." At that we both broke down laughing. Anyone who looked at us could tell we were more than just partners, we were friends, best friends. After regaining control of ourselves I asked the thing that was on my mind, besides that darn nightmare, of course- Ben didn't need to know about that though. "So what're you doing up so early? You're generally asleep until, like, noon, at least. That is unless someone woke you up before then. That and why would you bother walking all the way down here from Rand's house?" While I chose to stay at Booker's, Ben had chosen to stay at Rand's mainly because I refused the offer that his daughter, Nema, had given me. In fact, I was the one who suggested to her that she ask Ben if he wanted to stay with them. Ben had accepted, to no one's surprise.

The boy just shrugged answering the question with a simple statement. "I felt like it, I guess." For some reason part of me thought that the answer he gave was forced, like it was a lie. But he was looking me straight in the eye, if he was lying he wouldn't do that (his eyes would be looking at the floor or to the sky) and he has no reason to lie to me anyway. He turned his hazel eyed gaze to the stormy gray ocean, right to where Dolce Island used to be. "I'm never going to get used to that, ya know."

Looking at the same spot he was, I sighed "Ya... I know." Then my bark brown eyes went to the sand, as if I was interested in it rather than where the island once was; I whispered in an inaudible tone, my voice wavering "And it's all my fault." A tear must have rolled down my cheek because before I knew it Ben had his arm around me and was looking at me with sympathy.

"It's not, your fault you know," Ben whispered in my ear, pushing back my hair, ignoring my goggles. "So you can stop thinking it is. It's Purple Eyes' fault. He's the one that pushed the button, not you, we were just there-"

"We were there!" I shouted, pushing away from him and throwing my hands up to emphasize my point "I could have stopped it! I could have gotten on Latias and-"

"And what, Summer?" Ben interrupted, his voice stern, controlling, somewhat shocking me; Ben hardly ever was serious about, well, anything. "Then Latias would have been pinched and used against us, against _me_ because they would have caught you, just like they caught me at the start of it." He looked down at the last ten words, as though he were ashamed of it. Knowing him he probably was it was a blow to his pride, after all. Kid always thought he'd be the one saving me, he never expected it to be the other way around. But I had to agree, he had a point, they could have easily pinched Latias like all those other Pokémon they had captured. And that would have left me free falling, only to be caught by either Ben, which wouldn't be very likely, or the Pokémon Pinchers, which would have most likely happened.

"Still, I feel like I could have done _something_ to stop it."

He turned my head towards him and made me look him in the eyes "And what would you have done? Summer, the past is the past, so stop worrying about it, okay." With that being said, he pulled me into a brotherly hug, one of comfort, and concern. I hugged him back, burying my face into his chest; tears fell freely from my brown eyes. Sometimes it seemed like Ben was more like a brother to me than my own brother was. And, even though I'd never admit it to his face, I looked up to him as an older brother, the older brother that mine never was, he was the caring family I never had. He was the only one, besides Pichu, I felt I could truly trust with my life.

There was a flash of lightning, followed by a resounding clap of thunder, I had almost forgotten about the fact that there was a storm coming. Nor had I noticed the small droplets of water that had begun to fall from the gray sky; or the fact that the wind had picked up, blowing harder, and colder than before. Blowing so hard in fact, that trees had begun to bend over because of it. The waves had started to crash the shore reaching us, and lapping at our sneakers. All the while I stayed in his embrace, letting the tears that I wouldn't let anyone else see fall. For the past few weeks I'd been forcing myself to hold them back, and, honestly, it felt... good to be able to let them out.

As much as I didn't want to, I pulled him away from the hug. There was a wet spot on his uniform from where I had cried, but it could easily be blamed on the rain that was starting to bombard us. My eyes must have been a little red from all the crying, but I didn't care. "Come on," I told him, my voice calm and level despite having just cried "We should get inside Booker's shack. At least there, we'll be dry, and warm. 'Sides, I don't think he'd mind you staying through the storm." He nodded in agreement.

"Alright, sounds good to me." With that being said I motioned for him to follow me and the two of us walked to Booker's, the lights were on now and you could see movement coming from inside. In one of the windows you could see Pichu, staring out, waiting for his friend to come back. I knew I didn't have to lead Ben to Booker's, but I figured he would have followed me anyway. We trudged through the sand that was starting to act like wet cement, firm enough to walk on for a moment, but if you stayed there you sink in and get stuck.

I didn't even bother knocking on the wooden door, I didn't need to, not like many people ever came to see Booker and Nick nowadays. Speaking of the two they were working on an oak wood boat when we came in. Nick was the first to look up and see us. "Oh, there you are Summer." He said in a happy tone. "I thought you might have gotten caught in the storm and pulled out to sea by the high tide never to be seen-"

"Nick!" Booker, Ben and I all yelled simultaneously. Ben looked at me and I looked at him, then, at the same exact time, we laughed.

"Aw, you two would make a great couple, have you ever thought about that. I mean you both get along so well together and I can just imagine you guys would be great parents." Nick said lost in a world of his own… again.

"What?!" I yelled, my face turning a pale shade of pink for the second time that day.

"No way!" Ben shouted. I looked at him, and he looked at me. Part of me does love him, but it's only a brother/sister love, and I was fine with that. And, somehow, I think he feels the same way about me.

"Alright, boy "Booker started, looking at Nick. "Enough of those silly stories of yours." Then he turned to Ben"Make yourself at home." Turning his head to me he continued "Summer, you know where the blankets are, why don't you fetch one for your friend."

"Pichu!" The electric Pokémon called out, running as fast as he could towards me, then jumping into me. I was completely unprepared and just barely caught him, spinning in a circle while I did. Pichu laughed and I joined in. "Pichu pi pichu!" he said happily nudging me.

I was so focused on my little friend I hadn't even noticed Ben had his hand on my right shoulder, and that Booker and Nick were smiling. "Pichu was waiting for you to return, never left that window 'til now." The old man moved closer and whispered in my ear "I think he believed Nick's fantasies." At the thought of that I chuckled.

Ben moved a little closer to me and muttered to me, under his breath "What's so funny?" So I motioned for him to allow me to whisper in his ear what Booker said. He laughed, and I continued to chuckle.

"Come on," I say after we finally stopped laughing "I'll go get you a blanket." I looked at the tiny Pokémon in my arms and told him in a gentle voice "Sorry, buddy, I gotta put you down now." The little guy seemed disappointed by that, but he hopped out of my arms. Slowly I walked over to a cupboard next to where my makeshift bed was, and opened it revealing a small pile of blankets on top of a pile of wood. After grabbing the one on top, a navy blue quilt, I tossed it to Ben. Clearly he hadn't been expecting it because he almost dropped it, even though it hit him in the face.

"Give me a warning next time you throw something at my face." Ben hollered annoyed, while he wrapped the quilt around himself even though he was somewhat drier than before. The rain was still beating against the window, the waves were getting stronger. Another flash of lightning, another boom from thunder, another howl from the wind.

"This storm isn't going to stop soon, is it?" I ask to no one in particular, not expecting an answer from anybody. My black blanket was wrapped around my shoulders, Ben was right next to me on the makeshift bed, Pichu was curled up on the little pillow that was set up for him, Booker and Nick were hard at work on their boat. Sometimes I wondered why they still bothered, not like they had Dolce Island to sail to anymore, then again, there will always be a fisher or someone like that who could use it. "Maybe one day we could take one of Booker's boats and sail away for a bit, you know. Just hang out for once." I whispered softly to Ben.

He looked at me, and smiled lightly whispering back "Maybe." The dirt brown haired boy moved closer to me, and I moved closer to him. Soon enough my head was on his shoulder and his arm was wrapped around me. It was… nice, to say the least. My eyes slowly close as sleep took me for its own.

XoXoXoX

Well, that's all I got. Honestly I had _a lot_ of fun writing Nick, maybe because he's just wacky. Speaking of which, did I write Nick and Booker out of character, they don't appear much in the story but I want to at least _try_ and get them close to their original characters. With that being asked... see ya later this week, later peoples!

Ember


	4. Chapter 3: Detailed Dreams

Hi! So here's chapter 3 of the story. My brother just finished upgrading a computer that we've had since 2002, and, oh my gosh it is _so _much better from what he showed me. So this chapter you're going to see one of many reasons why this story is rated T, other than I don't like limits, but I didn't want to rate it M because it isn't bad enough to be rated M.

**Akozu Hiewa:** Thanks for featuring my story in yours, I _really_ appreciate it. It was surprisingly not that hard to add the obliviashipping. If I'm honest, which I am, I wrote that chapter 2 weeks ago, I think, while I was at L.B.I and didn't have internet. So even if you hadn't asked for it, it would have been there.

**Ranger Belle:** I have to agree, Nick _is_ way to fun to write. I had done the fluffiness on purpose, or maybe it was an accident, I don't know what I had going through my mind when I wrote it. Also... you're going to get an answer to one of your questions this chapter, just saying.

**RangerTakara****:** You never get held like that :( *gives virtual hug, then let's go for fear of ocwardness arising from other readers* _Anyway_ glad you like the story so far.

**Disclaimer:** I will never own nintendo, though I do want to work for them someday, like that'll ever happen

**Word Count:** 2,201 Words

XoXoXoX

**One Last Summer**

**Chapter 3**

**Detailed Dreams**

I ended up having another dream; it was the same place as before, same people, same shadow filled walls, same eerie lighting, same, well, everything. The only difference was I could hear what the girl in gray and the guy in green were saying.

"-Long do you think it'll take?" The girl asked.

"Who knows." The man said, "Could be days, weeks, months before we get what we want from her. After all, she's not likely to give up the-"

The girl interrupted him "I know she's not likely to hand it over! What kind of idiot do you take me for?!" She whispered loudly, like she wanted to yell, but wasn't allowed to.

"I never said you were an-" That's when the screams started, the same agonizing scream. The two went silent, like they were listening to the shouts and pleads. I think the girl even cringed at one point.

Eventually the man in brown came out of the room, and I could hear that the screams were actually slowly down, they wouldn't stop, but they got quieter. "DANM IT!" The man yelled punching the wall, that had to have made a dent in the metal with how hard he had hit it and the loud thud it made when he hit it. "Why won't that stupid girl listen." He hissed.

"Calm down, I'm sure she'll give eventually." The girl said calmly, her voice almost soothing, almost. There was still a hint of anger and hate that never left her voice, but she managed to hide it.

The man in green nodded, his form tense, as though he was scared he would get punished any second for something he didn't do "Yeah she can't hold it in forever, she'll eventually have to give it up."

"Quiet." The man in brown ordered. "I know she'll give in and give it to us eventually, but we need it, and we need it _now_." He said the last word louder than the rest, his voice sounded like he was soaking venom over the one word, trying to get his point across. "If we don't have it there is no way we could possibly succeed with our goal."

A sigh came from the girl as she shock her head "True, but you can't get huffy yet. Save the attitude for when nobody's around."

"Or take it out on the girl." The one in green suggested. "It might end up being the only way for her to give it up." That's when my body started moving again. The three were still talking, but their voices became muffled, as if they had a gag over them. Once again I phased through the metal door and entered a world of pure shadows.

The screams had come to a stop; instead the only thing that could be heard from the corner was whimpers and sobs, whoever-it-was is clearly crying. In the same farthest corner as before the shadows were the darkest but there was the same blob that was in my other dream. I was getting closer, and closer, and the room was growing colder and colder, my skin was covered in goose bumps and I felt the same shivers being sent up my spine. My eyes became adjusted to the darkness; I knew who that person was. But I didn't, no _couldn't_, believe it; there was no way, my eyes were playing tricks on me, they had to be. There's no way that could be… me…?

What's going on? Why am I seeing myself in my own dream? Why does this dream seem so real? But it can't be real, right? I'm at Booker's, with Ben and Nick and Pichu and Booker, obviously, not wherever this place is? What's going on here?

"_Sum…_" It was Ben's voice, and he's using my nickname - note to self: tell him not to call me that anymore for the umpteenth time. Wait, was the dream _that_ bad that they were trying to wake me up? "_Summer, wake up._" But I don't want to wake up; I want to find out what's going on. Why am I in my own dream? Is this reality and the idea that I'm with Ben just a fantasy? No it couldn't be reality, why would I be seeing myself if this was real. "_Come on Summer, wake up._" The world around me was starting to fade, the black slowly turning to gray. No! I don't want to wake up yet! I want to understand what's happening! White light was starting to intrude my vision. No, stop it! I want to learn more about what's going on.

Then the world faded to white completely.

XoXoXoX

My eyes shot opened and I was back in the room with Pichu and the others, they were looking at me as though I had just been stabbed. I thought my head was still on Ben's shoulder, when in reality it was on my pillow. Sitting up straight I yawned. Everyone just stared at me, it was actually kind of unsettling honestly. Finally someone spoke up "You alright, Summer?" I turned my head to the one who said it, and smiled faintly, it was Ben.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

That's when Nick started again "You sure? You were muttering in your sleep and moving around a lot. I thought you were having a nightterror and we tried waking you but nothing happened and I started thinking that you weren't ever going to wake up and be stuck in your nightmare forever doomed to never-"

Booker interrupted, thank goodness "That's enough, Nick. No need to make her worry."

I sighed, shaking my head, a small smile on my face "Booker, it's Nick, he's not going to stop making up fantasies anytime soon."

"Thank you Summer." The boat makers apprentice said gratefully. In response I just nodded. I couldn't hear the rain anymore, so it must have stopped, I could see the sun shining through the clouds. Pulling my hand up to my head, just like last time it was covered in sweat. I sighed thinking "_They are _so_ going to want an explanation for this, aren't they._"

Just as I expected, Ben asked the question "So what happened?"

Taking a deep breath I looked at him straight in the eyes and said "Nothing, it's just a dream, nothing to worry about."

"Pi pichu?" the small yellow Pokémon questioned looking at Ben and I.

"I don't buy that." Ben told me plainly. "You _can _tell me ya know."

I shook my head and told him sternly "It was just a dream; I don't need to talk about it." I lifted my shoulders into a shrug, and continued saying "It wasn't real anyway." Looking down I say in an inaudible whisper "It had to be fake." There was a resounding _beep, beep, beep_ coming from our stylers "_Thank you._" I thought. Bringing the styler to be level with my mouth and pressing the button that activated the voice messaging system "Summer here, what do you want?"

The reply was quick "It's Rand, Professor Hastings has something to talk to you and Ben about."

This time Ben was the one who inquired "Did he tell you anything about what he wants?"

A sigh could be heard coming though the line "No, he didn't. He told me that he'd explain what it was when you two got here."

I looked at Ben, and Ben looked back at me "Alright," I started "We'll be there as soon as we can." After removing my finger from the button I said "Well, let's go." Standing up I remove the black blanket from my shoulders and placed it on the bed in a heap. Turning towards the door I walked away.

"Huh?" Ben wasn't even paying attention to the fact that I was walking out the door. "Hey, wait up!" But I was already on the porch and walking towards the path. So he had to run to catch up to me. "What's your problem?"

He sounded _really_ annoyed, but I just said in a level tone, not looking him in the eye "Nothing."

"If this has to do with that dream, you know-"

"I know, I know, I can tell you about it." I stopped walking and turned my head towards him "Why do you care all the sudden, before if I said I had a nightmare and wanted to talk about it you would have agreed so you could laugh at me later. 'Sides it was only a dream, I'll live." Ben was looking at me, his hazel eyes seemed to burn with angry brown flames, but they were small, but they were also ones that could ignite faster than paper burns.

The fire in his eyes subsided to embers, and then to nothing, he held his hands up in defense "Fine, whatever you say Summer. Just saying that the offer's open. You don't have to be so defensive about it." We walked the rest of the way in silence. Only when we got to the ruins outside Cocona Village did I stop walking, sometimes I'd stop here and just wait for Celebi, thinking, _hoping_, it would show up and take me to the past Cocona Village. Yeah, I know I could just call it with its guardian sign, but part of me wants to see if the time traveling Pokémon will come to visit me on its own will, though I doubt that it would. For a moment I just stand there looking at the broken stone with the guardian sign for Celebi on it.

Ben hadn't noticed that I stopped walking and so he was continuing on to Teakwood Forest without me. I stayed there for a while then turned away, my partner was out of my sight. "_He's probably at Rand's already._" My mind told me. And so I went forward, ignoring the Pokémon that climbed and ran in the trees around me. Within seconds of me restarting my walk I heard the familiar _beep beep_ of my styler indicating that someone (more likely than not Ben) calling me.

"Hello?" the voice was of a young girl, about nine or so. "You there Summer?"

Sighing I pushed down the button, still walking, and replied "Did you hack into someone else's styler Nema?" There was a joyous laugh from the other side followed by a quick answer.

"I wish! But no, I didn't. Dad let me, um, use his styler to call you and tell you that Ben's already here with Pichu and Professor Hastings is getting impatient. So could you-"

"Hurry up." I finished making a note to ask Rand about him letting Nema 'use' his styler to see if she didn't just take it.

"Yeah, hurry up. The Profressor says it's _really_ important that you get here fast."

"He says that every time Nema." I point out "What makes this time around so special?"

"He didn't say. Though I've been trying to find out from the Ranger's Union website."

"Nema," I start "Are you trying to hack into the Union computer? You and I both know that that would be a bad idea." There was nothing but silence coming from the other end. "Nema, were you even listening to me?" More silence filled the air. "I'll take that as a no."

At last someone spoke "Sorry about that Summer." The voice was deeper and I instantly knew that Rand had found Nema and reclaimed his styler. Somehow, I had a feeling that Rand wouldn't just let Nema use it so easily. "But could you get here soon, Professor Hastings is getting annoyed."

I laughed "Tell him to wait a few more minutes, I'm almost there."

"Alright."

"Later." With that I removed my hand from the button, looking ahead, I continued forward.

A few minutes past by and there was Rand's house, Pichu was standing outside the door and as soon as he saw my face he ran forward and jumped on me. This time though, I anticipated it and held out my arms, wrapping them around the electric type as soon as he hit my body. Patting him on the head I whisper in his ear "Alright, little guy, let's go see what Professor Hastings wants us to do." I chuckled "Hopefully it isn't just a false alarm like the last" I paused trying to count how many times the Professor made a mistake, but soon I stopped trying, there were just to any to count. "Let's just say the last few times and be done with it."

And with that in mind I walked into the house, not knowing that the mission ahead would make me question everything I knew.

XoXoXoX

So the plot's finally going to start next chapter. Sorry if they're a bit delayed next week because a) I'm addicted to Fullmetal Alchemist right now, b) my brain decided to wanted a break for a few days and c) I am forgetting areas and information about the game, but I don't want to replay it just for information because that sucks the fun out of it. Now you know the first reason why this is rated T, cuse words, generally I will try to avoid using them, but they will come up on occasion. Well see you next week with chapter 4 if I've got any luck at all.

Later

Ember


	5. Chapter 4: New mission

Hey peoples! Here's chapter 4, just saying now, it is possibly going to be the worst chapter yet (at least in my mind) it leaves something more to be desired but I didn't know what else to do with it.

**Akoza Hiewa:** You know I have a feeling you know I can't answer your questions, but you ask them anyway. Like I said when I pmed you after you replied to my comment on your rangers discover fanfiction story (by the way you're welcome for me allowing you to feature it, again, though you could have done it anyway and I wouldn't have cared, just saying) I have no clue where this story is going to go at this point so anything is possible. Btw thanks for favoriting me.

**Ranger Belle: **Well, I can tell you this for sure, you are no idiot and your cousin had no place in saying you were. As for if she's being tortured... I have no clue where this story is going so that is a possible outcome.

**RangerTakara:** Your welcome :) . Thanks for the review.

**Ukulele Pichu:** I'm glad you like it, to be honest I'm surprised that so many people are actually reading this.

*looks at review order* O.O they're in alphabetical order and I wasn't even trying to do it. Wow.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own nintendo or the team that makes the pokemon games. If I did then Brock would be an optional companion in all the games.

**Word count:** 2,236 words

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 4**

**New mission**

As soon as I walked in the house I was greeted with Ben saying "What took you so long?"

To which I answered keeping my voice level "None of your business." I knew that I wasn't acting like my usual self, if I were I would have told Ben that I was at the ruins next to Cocona Village, I would have told him about that darn dream, but I wasn't myself, so I didn't, I didn't feel it was important. Looking at the Professor I asked "So what's the problem?"

"Now that we're all here…" Professor Hastings began, ignoring my question entirely. He looked to Leena and Rand and asked "My we use the upstairs room?"

"Yes." Came the quick reply from Nema's mom.

Professor Hasting looked to Ben, Pichu and I and nodded, motioning us to go up the stairs. Without a second thought I did what I was told, hastily moving up the stairs and taking a spot around the table that was still loaded with papers and books. I lay my arms on the wood and let my head rest on them. Pichu climbed his way out of my arms and onto my shoulder, slowly making his way to my head, tugging my hair lightly so he doesn't slip. The other two made it up into the room within seconds and took their places. "So… what's the problem?" I ask, somewhat eager to get out of here. I had other things on my mind that felt more important, for example: that feeling I had last night that something was wrong had grow slightly, it felt like it was telling me to not ignore it.

Professor Hastings looked at me and answered "A new threat is coming to Oblivia, from Johto and Kanto-"

My eyes grew slightly wider, everything else that was going on in my mind seemed petty at the sound of that one region, and I stood up straight and asked "Kanto?!" Ben looked at me, like he was curious why I cared so much all of a sudden, when only a few seconds ago I looked like I didn't care about anything. And, I guess that was true.

The Professor nodded "Yes, Kanto. They have their main base somewhere in Kanto, and a secondary base in Johto, though we cannot seem to find them yet. What we do know is that they are calling themselves World's End, and that they are coming to Oblivia in search of something that they can't find in any other regions, but those two. We only know they exist because of reports from the rangers in the regions."

"Do you know what they're looking for?" My partner asked, wanting more information on the subject.

"No we don't, but we're looking into it, so far we have found nothing." The old man said. "There have already been some sightings near Faldera Volcano and Tilikule Island; as well as in the lesser populated areas of Sophian Island."

Part of me wanted to ask about where they'd been sighted in Kanto, and if I could go to check it out; I used to live in Kanto, Pallet Town, to be precise. "So…" I started "I'm guessing you want us to keep Oblivia safe since we're already here." Professor Hastings nodded and I quietly groaned, complaining "Can't I go to Kanto and help out there? I used to live there after all, so I know the a few places they could use to hide their headquarters."

The old man just replied saying "We need you and your partner here."

I felt a hand on my shoulder, as well as a paw, when I looked Ben was there and he said calmly "What do you not want to be around here? Rand still has work of his own to do, and Sophian Islands pretty big, it would take me ages to search everywhere alone. Come on, Summer, it's not _that_ bad. Besides after they're gone you could go see your family at Kanto, right?"

With a sigh I looked the professor in the eye and asked "Would that be okay with you?" Instead of a reply he just nodded. A small smile made its way onto my lips, but I still wanted to go and help out after the patrol. "Where do you need us to go?"

"It's simple, really, I just need you and your partner to check out the islands where they have been seen and report back to me. Do not engage them if you find them, stay hidden and listen to what they're saying. We might be able to find out what they're after and reach it before them." Ben nodded, and, after a few seconds of consideration, I did as well. "Well, get going!"

With a smile I said "Alright." I didn't move though, I had to talk to Professor Hastings about going to Kanto. Watching Ben make his way down the steps I turned my head to the chief of technology and ask "After I'm done patrolling here, can I _please_ go to Kanto to help out? I lived there 'til I was ten, then joined the Union. I _have_ to go."

He looked at me, and shock his head slowly, as though he was disappointed by something. Was it so wrong that I wanted to see my home after a years of not being there? Was it because I wanted to do that more than do the mission at hand? "If you are needed there…" was all the Professor said, and it was all he needed to say. I watched him walk away, I understood why he said it but that didn't make me feel any better.

I wouldn't get to see my home, I knew it. They would never actually need me in Kanto, they had rangers of their own there. Sometimes I wished that I had been stationed in Kanto instead of Sinnoh and then being brought here, more likely than not, to stay. Though that wouldn't be too bad, I guess, still… I want to see my brother, even though he doesn't care about me; I want to see mom, even though she -informally- disowned me, she never much cared for rangers, thought that there were much better, more "respectable" jobs out there and loathed the idea that I wanted to be one saying it would disgrace her; I want to visit dad's old grave, just to tell him that I followed my dream no matter what mom said, and have this feeling that he's proud of me, and I've wanted him to be proud of me since I was four (he always liked my brother best, same with mom). To say I was disappointed would have been an exact description, but, the Professor said those words with finality, there could be no arguing it.

With my head bowed slightly to hide the sadness in my brown eyes, I walked down the stairs and looked up when I was halfway down, faking happiness with ease then calmly walked outside, where Ben and Pichu were waiting. "What took you so long?" the boy asked.

"Just talking to Professor Hastings about going to Kanto after this, that's all." I answered, moving my shoulders up slightly, as though it was nothing.

"Alright." He said after a few seconds. Though he seemed to have left it at that, and, to be honest, I was thankful for that. "So which islands do you want to take?" Ben asked after I had called Latias and we had taken off into the ever cloudy sky, Pichu hiding under my scarf holding onto the back of my jacket as though his life depended on it.

I looked at him, my face told it all, the simple confusion then sudden realization, and, finally, the embarrassment I felt for not figuring it out sooner. After thinking for a few seconds an answer spilled from my mouth "I'll take Faladera Island and you can take Tilikule Island, then we can meet up above Sophian Island and search it together since it's bigger than the other two. What do you think?" Ben closed his hazel eyes and thought about it, he nodded when he opened them. "Well then, I'll see you soon." A smile was on my face as the gentle wind blew past us.

"I'll see you there." With that being said, he turned north towards Tilikule Island and took off. I sat there for a while waiting for him to disappear, knowing full well I gave him the smaller of the two islands, I had my reasons though. I could get from Faladera Island to Sophian Island faster than he would if he had to do it. Besides, I just felt like I had to get away from him for a while, far away; I just need to think things through for a while, and it's stuff I'd really rather Ben not know about.

Leaning forward I whisper to Latias "Alright, let's go to Faldera Volcano." We turned towards the south east and I mutter, petting her head "Go as fast as you want to, girl." With that we took off fast enough so that everything around us was just a blur. And before I knew it I was yelling out of joy. It was like a roller-coaster, I could feel my hair being thrown behind me, I could feel myself slowly being pulled from my seat, I could feel the wind whipping my face, and I could feel Pichu climbing down farther into the scarf and holding on with a death grip to my uniform. Latias made turns and rolls and flips as I laughed and screamed, holding on with all my might. Latias always loved doing this with us. Anytime I flew with her after the Pinchers were gone I always gave her free reign of what to do, only telling her where to go occasionally. The first few times I told her not to do flips and turns, but over time I just got used to it, and loved it; sadly Pichu didn't enjoy it as much as I did, if he enjoyed it at all.

Within seconds I could see the cloud of ash that was in the air, surrounding use in a thick blanket of ash and soot, indicating that Faldera Volcano was right under us. "Okay, Latias, let's get out of this ash cloud." I said somewhat quietly. With a nod that signaled an agreement she dove down through the clouds, aiming for the red flat rocks that signaled that there was ground. Part of me didn't want the flying to end when I touched the hot volcanic ground, when I was flying I felt free, everything that plagued my mind before hand, if anything at all, would vanish leaving me feeling light like a Starraptor or Spearow. "Thanks, girl" I said with an invisible smile "You go and have some fun, alright. I'll call when I need you, okay." The female Pokémon nodded and took off into the sky, leaving me on the ground.

Turning around I looked at the red rock path and lava flows that were common to the volcano, the Pokémon were as active as ever it seemed. Just by standing there I could see them running around their habitat, enjoying the blistering heat that already had me sweating. I could feel Pichu climbing out of my scarf and onto my left shoulder, when he was there I moved my right hand to scratch his chin and said "Alright, Pichu, let's get this over with." After standing there for a few minutes attempting to come up with a plan I chose that I'd walk to the top, then descend to the docks, after all it's easier to go down then to go up. So, I figured, why not start with the hard one and get it over with. Slowly I make my way up, nothing has really changed about the place, if I'm being honest, which I am.

The second Cliffside area, which was where I had landed, had no one there, well other than the Pokémon, obviously. I could see the entrance area up ahead, the old shack was still there, sometimes I wonder how it hadn't burned to the ground… or why someone would even build a shack on a volcano that still had lava flowing out of certain areas; then again, for all I know the volcano might not have been active when they built it, but still, what ever happened to common sense. But it's up, and that's that, can't change it.

I walked up to the door and listened for anything that was out of the ordinary, and heard nothing. So I just continued on after looking through the window that was still intact, how I'll never know, and saw nothing. Without even realizing that I was moving I just continued on the patrol of the volcano, and, in short, there was nothing there. At least that's what I thought until I reached the top.

XoXoXoX

Well, that wasn't my best chapter, but it's something. I forget if anyone lives in the house on the volcano. I think an old man and his ninetales do, but I'm not certain, so if someone could confirm or deny my thought that would be great. Also, did I do Professor Hastings alright, I feel like he was really out of character. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I'll see you soon.

Later,

Ember


	6. Chapter 5: A little information

Well, here's chapter 5. I _would_ have uploaded it yesterday but I was doing stuff with my mom. Just saying now this chapter is a little shorter then the others, not by much, but it is. That's because of all the dialogue I put in here, pretty much the whole thing is just dialogue. Of course there is normal descriptive paragraphs, just not as many as usual. Anywho, onto answering the reviews!

**Akoza Heiwa:** Ya, I didn't want her to have an overly happy life, I didn't want to give her a overly tragic life where all her family is dead and she lived on the streets (because that wouldn't make sense, how would she have earned the money to become a ranger and blah, blah, blah. it would just leave to many plot holes that I'm to lazy to fill right now), but I also didn't want to give her a normal life, so that's what I came up with. *reads rest of review* Well, that's a good enough reason as any.

**RangerTakara:** When I went back and read the part I felt a little bad for Summer as well. As you read on you'll actually see that she still remembers them sometimes, so the story will bring them up sometimes. Maybe not as much as last chapter, but in snippets you'll learn more about her past. She is technically over it, and it doesn't bother her as much as it did when it all happened, but she, as you saw, still does remember them and it makes her a little sad, but not to the point of crying. Wounds heal over time, since that all happened years ago it doesn't hurt her as much, if at all (which hardly ever happens).

**Disclaimer:** I don't own pokemon or nintendo because if I did the characters would actually have a back story (kinda like Kate does, except in more detail).

**Word Count: **1,916 words (just saying now, if you haven't noticed most chapters will be over 2,000 words)

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 5**

**A little information**

I had checked every cave, every room, no one was there, and by the time I got to the top I had figured that there was no one here, no World's End grunts tearing the place apart looking for, whatever it is that they're looking. Part of me was curious about it, the only thing that can't be found in any other region but Kanto and Johto that I know of is well, I don't know, maybe the guardian signs, but I can't see why they'd be interested in those, that and I don't think there are any in Kanto or Johto. And besides the Sky Fortress is gone, and I doubt it would be useful to them.

The entrance to the top of the volcano was only a few feet in front of me, I could see the rock that Moltres had been perched on at one point. But I could also see, and hear, other people, about four of them. They were dressed in blacks and grays, they had to have been sweating bullets in those things (I defiantly didn't envy them), on the back of their shirt was a navy blue slightly violet colored symbol that was shaped like the world, only there were flames overlapping it. "Well," I whispered to Pichu as I went to the wall just next to the exit so I could hear them without having to worry too much (I mean, come on, what kind of enemy would look behind them as they walk out? That would be suggesting that they were actually smart). "Looks like we found something." Then in an inaudible tone I pondered "Wonder if Ben found anything on Tilikule? I doubt it, but anything is possible, right? For all I know he could just be waiting for me above Sophian Island wondering what is taking me so long."

"You see anything yet?" I heard one of them ask, it sounded like a girl, her voice was strong and level.

They all replied, at the exact same time, "No." Each of them looked at someone and they started laughing until someone else, this time it was a boy, had said

"That was weird!" He sounded like he couldn't have been older then fifth teen, only two years older than me. And, he actually sounded kind of familiar, he sounded like my brother happy, excited, yet his voice was level, but I was probably just imagining it. Huh, my imagination has been really active lately I guess.

"Alright" The girl who spoke first began, her voice a little and cheery this time as though she was trying to stop laughing "Let's get back to work. The boss'll have our heads if we don't find what he needs soon." My ears perked up slightly. "_Come on, what is it you're looking for."_ I thought.

Someone else spoke, it was another boy, but his voice was deeper than the other ones. "But how do we know it's even here?"

"Yeah," Another girl said, her voice sounded a bit like a seven year old boy, trying to add reason to what the deeper voiced boy had said "How do we know that it's here and not on another island? For all we know it might be on one of the more populated ones."

I could hear the other girl, and the other boy as well, sigh. The higher voiced boy answered saying "Well if it were on the populated islands it would be in a museum or underground in someone's house, and there is no museum on any of the islands, and there are no basements in any of the houses. Not to mention that the boss said it would be around where the legends had stayed because it would have been protected by them. So if they were on the more populated islands the likely hood of them being found by them would increase and they would have found them by now. But remember when we asked a few people if they saw them or ever heard of them?" Most of them nodded, but one shook her head, earning a look from her colleges.

"I have a bad memory," the girl with the seven year old voice said, attempting to defend herself with her logic. "I thought you guys knew that about me."

"They all said that they never heard of it. Or that it was just a legend so they never bothered looking for it." The higher voiced boy informed the others.

"So why aren't we checking Layuda Island, the ruins outside of that one village on Renbow, the Undersea Cavern, and the Rainbow Dais? Aren't they homes for legendaries to?" The girl with the seven year old voice asked. Wait, what about all the places in Johto and Kanto? Did they have separate teams for them as well?

"We're getting there, slowly, but surely." Explained the other girl. "The boss wants to get to the Undersea Cavern soon, but he needs to get the gear required. As for why we haven't gone to the Rainbow Dias," she paused for a moment "well, let's be frank here, there is no way anything could be hidden there, so it's the last place the boss wants us to check."

The lack of information I wanted to hear was a little annoying, but, then again, I was at least getting _something_. I knew I could just call Ben or the Professor over here and have that be that, but for some reason I felt like this information was familiar. But it can't be, I've never heard it before, so I just suppressed the feeling and continued to listen. Though, they had gone silent, the only sound was of the lava bubbling and metal hitting the rocky ground. After thinking for a minute I chose that I could risk a peek outside from my hiding spot, just to see what they're doing.

The one thing I was expecting was the one thing I didn't see coming.

They were digging for whatever it is that they were looking for. There were holes in the ground, they didn't go down very deep though, but I had a feeling that they probably all connected somewhere. "_Hope none of them hit lava._" I thought I never really did like the idea of people dying; I mean, I know it's the way of life and that can't be changed, but still ever since dad died… I shook my head blocking out all the memories. No, this was _not_ the time to be thinking about him.

"I found something!" yelled the deeper voiced boy, as he climbed out of his hole, holding up something that seemed to shine like a diamond in the sunlight. Slowly the other three clambered out of their holes and one of the two girls grabbed it out of his hand, and examined it. That's when I felt something in the back of my mind, it was like, I don't know how to describe it, it was like my mind was a quilt and someone just started to unravel the strands of wool that were used to make it. It was like something was slowly being unraveled in my head.

The girl who sounded like a seven year old questioned the girl who had the shining object in her hand "So is it one of the 'crystal shards' that the boss sent us to find" "_Crystal shards…_" I thought "_What the heck are those?"_ A small smile crept onto my face, "_Well at least now I know what they're looking for, I guess._"

"Yup." Came the quick reply from the other girl followed by a short cheer from the others. "Whether it's one of the real ones or not, well, that doesn't matter right now. Right now, let's get this to the boss." I could hear the sound of footsteps on the rocks coming to the exit of the peak. Pressing myself against the wall I felt like I was willing myself not to be seen, my eyes were clamped shut and my arms kept the tiny mouse Pokémon against my stomach. The footsteps were getting farther and farther away, and I allowed myself to open my eyes. All that could be seen of the four team members was their outlines fading into the red magma/stone background.

With a sigh I moved away from the rocky wall and released Pichu from my grasp. The yellow Pokémon stretched and whispered "Pichu pi pichu pichu pi." He was probably saying that he was glad all that was over so he could finally move around a bit.

"Come on buddy," I said, opening my arms signaling that he had to cling to me again, my eyes meeting his. He looked disappointed, his eyes were aimed at the rocky red floor. "I know that you don't like it but we have to meet up with Ben now so we can tell him what we found out." Pichu looked up and nodded, though I knew he still completely disagreed with it, and jumped into my arms, quickly climbing onto my shoulders.

Stepping into the light of the top area of the volcano, all I could say is, you could hardly take five steps without falling into a hole they dug. The only place they didn't dig any holes was around the edge, about one foot away from the edge to be precise, which was understandable because then there was the possibility that they could dig too far to the side and die horribly. Then again, if they dug down far enough that wouldn't have matter because they would have hit magma eventually. The holes didn't go down that deep though, maybe two or three feet down and two feet wide, that may not sound like much, but when there are like ten in one area it becomes a lot.

I carefully made my way to the right side, trying not to trip and fall. Releasing my styler I quickly drew Latias' guardian sign and called her to me, and within seconds the red and white legend was right in front of me. Slowly I walked up to her and patted her on the head, she let out a happy "La" and then I climbed onto her back, wrapping my arms around her neck. Pichu decided he wanted to sit in front of me and so he was wrapped in my arms as well, probably hoping that he won't fall off.

"Latias," The word seemed to come out as a whisper "Let's get to Sophian Island." In the back of my mind I whisper the rest "_And tell Ben about this_." I hadn't even noticed that we were in the sky flying away from the cloud of ash and soot, Latias must have noticed I had zoned out because she didn't do any tricks this time around, she just flew fast and straight (I think Pichu was extremely grateful for that). A smile came on my face as I was slowly brought out of my thoughtless world and realized that we were only a mile or so away, and I could see the outline that was Ben in the distance.

XoXoXoX

And that's that. We now know what they're after, we just don't know why they're after it. Well, I know (not really), but I'm not saying (because I don't know). Brain, shut up... thank you. Yes I'm wierd, you don't have to tell me that. _Anyway_ I'll see you guys and gals soon, hopefully. I've been writing a long one-shot and my focus has been on that more then this, but I've been trying to type more of this story every time I'm on the computer, at least once a day. So, we'll see what happens.

Later,

Ember

Btw, since no one answered this last time, do I write Proffesor Hastings out of character in the last chapter? I feel like I did, but I don't know for sure.

**Important**: I can't believe I almost forgot about this. There will be no updates next week, because I have a leardership camp thing that I have to go to starting on munday and I have no idea if I'll have chapter 6 written by then. Sorry :(


	7. Chapter 6: Small plans

Sorry about the lack of updates last week, I had a camp to go to and we weren't allowed to have electronic devices with us, so... ya. This chapter is a little longer then the others, think of it has an apology for not having any updates last week if you want to. Or you can see it as the meer fact that I didn't know where else to end it so I just kept going until I was satisfied. Now onto the reviews!

**Akoza Heiwa:** I wouldn't say she was spying, but just following Prophesor Hasting's ord- okay, ya, she was spying there's no other way around it. I have to agree, though, Summer is awsome,why else would I write a story with her as the main protagonist? Other then the severe lack of stories with her as the main protangonist.

**RangerTakara:** I wouldn't say she was stalking, stalking implies that she was following them around for a while and listened to their every converstation, which she didn't. Sorry I sort of wanted to get the tecnecality out of the way, I apologize if you thought I was rude/mean, I didn't mean it. As for who those people are, well... *shrugs* don't know. For all I know one of them might become relevent to the plot, though this is highly doubtful. Also I'm glad to see that you read the note at the bottom that said "important" in capital, bold letters.

**Ranger Belle:** Hey, don't worry about it, family does that sometimes and you just can't control it. Don't focus on it because you can't change the past, look on the bright side things. And, honestly, I'm glad I'm not the only person who sees Latias as a trickster. Let's face facts here, in the movie she was such a trickster. At the very start she was invisable and toyed with Ash by grabbing his line in the race and causing him to go off course, through allies and such; she pretended to be human a lot and at the end of the movie took Bianca's drawing of him and Pikachu and gave it to him, disguised as Bianca(it _is_ Bianca, right?) and then kissed him. She loved to play with him and Pikachu, she's the younger of the two, the fun loving one while Latios is the older more mature one. As for if I'm going to use Summer's new backstory as a part of this, answer, probably yes, you'll see me bring it up _a lot_ so, ya.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own nintendo, nor will I ever. I hope to work their someday, but I doubt I'd get in.

**Word count:** 2,616 words

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 6**

**Small plans**

"Alright, Latias" I mumble gently "Can you slow down so we don't fly past my partner?" The air flow around slowed down significantly and I looked down just to make sure that Pichu hadn't fallen off, ya… that should have been higher priority, but he was still there, and he was fine, he had curled himself up against my body and clung to it, his breathing was even and calm.

"So you made it." Ben said speaking a little loader then usual do to the wind that had just started to blow harder and colder do to the fact that we were close to Mt. Sorbet, a place where Articuno had lived.

With a nod a replied "I did." Silence filled the air, I could feel Pichu shifting trying to get warmer. "So…" I started "Did you find anything?"

He shook his head "I got nothing. What about you?"

"I saw them." That was really all I had to said and he'd understand it, but I continued anyway. "They were digging around the top of Faldera Volcano for something called a crystal shard, or something along those lines. One of them said that they can only be found around where legendaries live, specifically Kanto's, Johto's and Oblivia's legendaries. Another one of them said that some of them were fake and some were real."

"Well, it's something." Ben replied. "Come on, let's check Sophian Island, then we can head back to the Professor and you can tell him what you heard."

I nodded "Alright, let's get this over with." Ben aimed his Starraptor to the ground and smiled at me, I just smiled back as I watched him descend from the sky, to the ground below. "Alright, girl, time to land." I whispered, Latias nodded and I could feel the wind rush past us as the we descended to the forested area of the populated island.

When we landed I hopped off Latias and the female legendary took off as I smiled at her, I felt Pichu slowly climb up to take his perch on my shoulder, then I turned to Ben who had landed a few feet away from me, the smile still on my face. "Do you want to stay together, or split up again? I'll leave the choice to you."

Almost instantly Ben had replied saying "Let's stick together." Then he blushed? I didn't understand why he did it, there was nothing I could find in the simple statement that would be blush worthy. Maybe it was the whole idea he wanted to stick together or something, I don't know. Ben was always a bit of a mystery to me. Then again he was a boy, I was a girl, he probably thought I was a bit of a mystery as well.

"Alright." I responded, at this point Pichu had made it onto my right shoulder and was holding onto my scarf to stay on top of it. "So… where do you want to look first?" The question was answered by silence. It hung in the not-so-still air that was constantly moving from the wind that had picked up causing the trees to sway and rustle and leaves to fall from their branches. "Silence isn't an answer, I hope you know that."

He shook his head and looked at me "Sorry, zoned out." I shrugged, as if to say 'whatever,' even though generally I was the who zoned out, he did it a lot to so it was completely understandable. "Um… you said that what they were looking for, crystal shards, right?"

I nodded "Yup. That's what they called it."

"And you said that they said that they were found around where legendaries live. So why don't we just check Mt. Sorbet seeing as that's the only place that is home to a legendary pokémon around here? Then we could just check the summit because no other legendary lives there and be done with it."

After thinking it through I realized how much sense it made, but he was forgetting something. "Okay, that works, but what about the Canal Ruins. You know, where we found Suicune."

"I know, you don't have to remind me, I'm not that forgetful. Am I?" My partner replied.

A smirk slowly made its way onto my previously emotionless face, then vanished "Actually-"

"You know what, on second thought, don't answer that." Ben interrupted quickly "Anyway, after we check the mountain we could check there. That good with you?"

"Don't see why it wouldn't."

"Alright let's go." With him having said that we were on our way to the mountain. Though for some reason something was nagging me. Maybe it was the idea that one of those goons sounded like my brother. Maybe it was the fact that Ben had given a small hint that he saw me the same way I saw him, as family, why else would he have blushed when he said he wanted to stick with me? Maybe it was that feeling of something being unraveled in my mind. Whatever it was, I didn't really care. I was with my bro- Ben, I was with my partner.

To be honest I almost laughed, I really could have, I had almost called Ben my brother in my mind. Sure he was more of a brother then mine was, and sure we kinda looked alike, but what difference did it make? We weren't related, my childhood might have been a little better if we were, but we aren't, and that's that. No more, no less. He's not a part of my family, as much as we look and act like we could be, we aren't. So why do I feel like we should? I shook my head, why am I even thinking about this stuff?

Slowly the light had started to fade away, and the air was getting colder, and the wind was blowing a little harder. Looking up I noticed that the sky had turned gold, it was twilight, the loneliest hour of the day. A time when it's not day, and it's not night, it's somewhere in the middle. Some people consider it as the night's guardian, fighting of the sun's rays of light until there is only the black or navy blue of night left. Twilight was my favorite time of day, maybe because of how I would manage to sneak out of my house and watch the reflection of it in the water. It would turn a golden blue in the light, and I would be entranced by it until the stars came out. At which point mom would come out and drag me inside, but my eyes would never leave the sky.

"Think we should stop for the night?" I asked, it was getting late, I could see the stars in the sky start to slowly appear, and the light from twilight was fading into inexistence.

Ben shrugged "I don't see why not. We could go back to Booker's and sleep there. Then when we wake up we can go to Mt. Sorbet."

"And then we could go to the Canal Ruins and check there. Then, finally, we can tell Professor Hastings about what we found." I continued his train of thought.

"What _you _found, you mean."

"No, what we found." I smiled before saying "But, yes, mostly what I found. Or heard, I should say."

Ben smirked, I think he expected me to say that, and if he did, I wouldn't be surprised. He continued the previous conversation, trying to get off the subject that I could easily gloat about "And, maybe, after that you can tell me why you were so interested in going to Kanto. I heard you say you used to live there, but you never told me -or anyone about it- until Professor Hastings brought it up."

I bit the inside of my cheek. Why? Why did he have to ask me that? I never told anyone for a reason. "Um…" What could I tell him? I could pretend everything was great, and just chose not to talk about it because no one else does. Then again, if I tell him the truth it would be a lot less of a burden on me. "Well…"

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Ben said quickly, as if sensing how uneasy I felt.

I sighed "I'll tell you what; I'll think on it and tell you my answer tomorrow. Deal?" Whenever I don't know what to say when it comes to answering a question, I would just say that. At this point it was almost second nature to me, like riding a bike to most people. It was a good idea when it came down to it. If you don't what to say, tell the person you'll think on it, works pretty much every time.

He shrugged "Don't see why not." I looked into his hazel eyes and smiled nodding a thank you. "We should probably get going before it gets to dark."

He was right, it was already long past twilight's golden gaze and the stars were fully lite, the sky was cloudless but the wind was frigid. Without saying a word I called Latias and hopped on, and let Pichu go in his normal spot when we're flying. I watched Ben get on his Starraptor and take off into the sky, with a nudge I got Latias to go into the air and the two of use flew together, though I knew Latias wanted to go faster and play around "_Next time, Latias. There's always next time_." I thought, and, actually, almost whispered into the female legend's ear.

I was glad that she was going slow so we didn't leave him behind, it was nice to be able to fly with him. We didn't talk, but I was fine with that. To tell the truth, I was pretty tired, but, at the same, I didn't want to go to sleep. What if I had that dream again? Sure I could possibly get more information out of it, but I'd seen it enough times already. The first time was about a week ago, though it was so blurry, and there wasn't any sound so I had no clue what was going on. Then there was yesterday night, the first I had actually been able to somewhat tell and hear what was happening. Then finally earlier today.

Part of me still wanted to know why the heck I was in my own dream. Let's face facts, that's not something that happens very often. Well, okay, it happens all the time if you want to get technical because you're yourself in your dreams. But you don't ever actually see yourself in your dream. To say it confused me was an understatement. If someone asked me to explain it to them I would have just shrugged and said that I didn't understand it.

I shook my head, "_No, stop thinking about that stupid dream. That's all it was, a dream, get over it_."

"You alright, Summer?" the question broke the silence that was dominating the air. I had thought we would have gotten there already, then again, Latias is going slower than usual so Ben could keep up. I had actually forgot he was there because of how quiet we had gotten. The wind around was even colder than before, and clouds had started to form in the air around use, the moon was out and full giving off it's silver rays that seemed to be reflected everywhere you turned your gaze.

"I'm fine, just thinking."

"You sure?"

"Positive." We smiled at each other. I could feel Pichu curling up inside my scarf telling me how sleepy he was. And, you know what, I was fine with that. So long as he didn't fall out, why shouldn't he be allowed to sleep in my scarf while we're flying. 'Sides Ben was here, and I was on Latias, so if he did fall one of us would catch him, at least I would hope so.

Looking down I saw Cocona Village, and in front of us was the endless expanse of sea. My eyes locked onto where Dolce Island used to be, no matter how many times I told myself to get over it and get used to it, I don't think I'll ever be able to. I saw that my partner had started to descend and I felt Latias do the same, my right hand moved to pat her head as a quick thanks.

When we landed, and dismounted I could feel the grains of sand out from under my sneakers, I could hear the water lapping the shore gently, the air smelled like the ocean. It was a nice change from the scent of smoke and ash the was found in Faldera Volcano. I saw Ben walk away to Booker's, and, after a moment of staring at the scene before me, I did to.

The door creaked open and we walked inside, closing it on the way. "I'll set up a makeshift bed on the floor for me, and you can use mine." I whispered, I knew that the others had to be asleep at this point, there was no way they wouldn't be.

"No" He replied after a few seconds, his voice was silent, like the sound of footsteps on carpet, and calm, like a spring breeze. "I'll take the floor, I don't care really."

I raised an eyebrow, Pichu had already hopped off my shoulder and ran to his small bed where he had curled up and fallen asleep on his pillow. "You sure?" I questioned "Because it's no big deal if you want the mattress."

"I'm fine, okay. " He rolled his eyes, annoyed that I was still offering it to him even when he said it was okay. "You don't have to keep offering it to me, okay."

With a nod I walked to the closet and pulled out a think black quilt and unfolded it until it was only folded in half, length wise. Then I placed it on the ground next to Pichu's pillow. I pulled put a dark brown pillow and tossed it to him, I heard him give a silent "ah" in surprise and I didn't even have to look back to know he was giving me a look that said 'Really?' finally I grabbed a deep blue blanket and tossed it to him.

Slowly I closed the closet door and walked to my bed. After removing my goggles, scarf, and sneakers I laid down and smiled at Ben who was doing the same. His oak wood brown hair still pointed upward, just like always, the smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown. In some ways he reminded me of… "_Stop it!_" my mind intervened "_Stop thinking about them and get over it!_" The frown was replaced with a look of indifference as he turned to me and whispered

"Night." Then he turned on his side and I could tell he had closed his eyes by the time I had replied.

"Night…" With that silence filled the room, and there would be no sound, at least, for now.

XoXoXoX

Thanks for being so patient with me guys/gals you're just great. Anyway I got the idea for the little speal about the hour of twilight from Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, they didn't exactly put it that way, but that's how they made me see twilight. All I have to say is go watch/play it, it has to be my favorite LoZ game next to Wind Waker. Now that I'm done shamelessly promoting all I have to say is that I'll see you soon with another chapter.

Later,

Ember


	8. Chapter 7:One shard

Well... my mimi band camp is over (ya, probably should have told you guys/gals about it in the last chapter, sorry) so I can finally post this. Hopefully it turned out alright.

**Akoza Heiwa:** Thanks :)

**RangerTakara:** I can't garentie that they'll end up as a couple. Simply put romance is just an awkward thing for me to write. I can do the brother/sister kind of relationship well because I live with it everyday (I have a brother), but I've never fallen in love so I don't think I can do it. Most of my stories have to deal feel some sort of inner turmoil because I know how that feels. Basically if I've felt it I can write it somewhat well; if I haven't experienced it, then, I could try, but it would be horrid.

**Ranger Belle:** I have to agree she can be dense, therefore I must be dense to because I based her personality somewhat off mine. I'm glad I helped make your day better though, but can you explain how it was funny, (goes and rereads chapter then faceplams) nevermind I found it! Thanks for correcting my spelling, don't worry i went back and corrected it in the story, and I'll be sure to spell mountain as mountain thought the rest of the story that will last who knows how long.

**Disclaimer:** There is no way I will ever own nintendo... I have nothing else to say.

**Word count: **3,447 words (I had no clue where to stop okay)

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 7**

**One shard**

Laughter filled the air, I was smiling, and it reached from eye to eye. The wind was blowing in my face "Can't catch me!" The yell was a challenge and was laced with pure enjoyment. I sounded younger, maybe four? Yeah, four years old.

"Oh yes I can." It was a boy's voice, he sounded about six years old. More laughter filled the air as the wind rustled the grass that was under our feet and caused the trees to sway, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Everything felt… normal… me, him, playing in the forest, laughing, having fun. I tried to remember the last time I had felt this happy, this… normal.

I felt my right foot fall down lower then my left, and I felt the dirt rubbing against my wrist, I felt it twist slightly. The next thing I knew I was one the ground, trying to pull my foot out of the hole, only to feel it twist more. This time though, I felt pain shoot up my leg. It was a familiar pain though, nothing I hadn't experienced before.

There was a hand on my shoulder, pushing me to sit up. When I looked up, it was the boy, his short, neck length, choppy, chocolate brown hair waving in the wind, his deep dark brown eyes laced with concern that he was trying to hide. He was wearing a gray hoodie, that was tied around his waist, a cobalt blue t-shirt and dirty blue-gray jeans. It was him… my brother. "You okay, sis?" He asked tilting his head.

I nodded, and hugged him. There was a time when he cared, when we were younger, we didn't have to worry about the world that we would have to journey through when we turned ten, dad was still alive, and everything was right between the four of us. Sure dad and mom always thought that brother was better than me, why? I never found out. But, back then, I was fine with mom and dad liking Teran more than me; I didn't care.

Teran moved his arms under my shoulders and lifted me off the ground, into the air where we spun around in a circle, laughing. His eyes full of innocence and mirth, and his wide, cocky, grin as he said "Got ya!"

With a giggle I replied "Only because I tripped!" I felt the ground under my feet once again, a slight pain in my ankle, but I tried to ignore, and the wind blew the trees and grass rustled and swayed.

I still remember that day, and relive it, though only in dreams.

It was a time when I thought nothing could separate Teran and I. That we would always be loved by the other. If I ever needed to go to someone I would go to him, and if he ever needed to talk to someone he would talk to me. He would play a song on guitar and I would sing the lyrics, if he was on a certain team, I wanted to be on that team, if he left the room, I would leave the room. We did almost everything together. I miss those times so much.

The happy scene faded to black and was replaced by another, darker scene.

Buildings were in ruins, ones that were once tall and looked at with pride torn down and set a flame. Smoke filled the air and swirled covering up the sky causing it to look a menacing smoky red with the flames. Tears threatened to fall from my eyes, why? Why this? What happened to the joyful memories that were in my mind only mere seconds ago? Where was the lush forest and warm sun shining in my face? The caring embrace that only Teran and one other person could give me, the feeling of security and love that it gave me, where had it gone? Why where the buildings in complete ruins, and the sky filled with smoke making the scene before me somber.

There was a hand on my left shoulder, while the person's right hand was moving my hair behind my ear. I felt the person lean forward slightly, their breath on my neck. When I turned I recognized the neck length, choppy, brown hair and sad brown eyes instantly. He looked older, maybe fifth teen; he was wearing a dark brown t-shirt, torn blue jeans, and worn out black sneakers that look more gray than black. On his cheek was a scar that ran down the side of his face "Sorry sis." He whispered to me, I felt his arms around me.

I put my head where his shoulder met his torso, he had gotten taller from the last dream to this one, but that only made sense. The tears that I had been trying not to shed, spelt as we stood there. But I should have noticed, I should have seen, he was slowly fading away; his once clear image fading to become almost see-through. As soon as I felt my arms on my body I looked up and saw it. The tears fell harder. "No… don't leave me…" I was reaching out to his ever fading form. The words seemed meaningless, though, a plea that would never be answered He had already left me when he was ten, what was stopping him from doing it again. Answer: nothing.

Soon his image vanished entirely, and I was left alone once again. Falling to my knees I raised my arms to wipe away the tears. I shouldn't feel this way, but I did; I knew that Teran didn't really care about me anymore, so why do I long to relive the times when all we had was each other? Another pair of arms wrapped around me, and I leaned against them and clung to the body they belonged to. Words of comfort were being mumbled into my ear, and their free hand was stroking my hair, but it didn't help. It didn't feel the same; no hug would ever feel the same as the way brother hugged. But it close to it. Shaking my head, whoever this was shouldn't have to deal with me like that. No one should have to deal with me crying like that and have to comfort me.

They shouldn't have to see past the fronts I put up. But at the same time… I wanted them to. I wanted someone to see past those barriers that I placed around me and comfort me when I need it. The same feeling of the persons breath on my neck made me shiver. It felt familiar, but, at the same time, unknown. "You'll be okay." They whispered, those were the only words that made it through to me. The only words that I allowed myself to hear, even though it felt like big lie, I didn't care.

Before I knew it, the world around me had faded to white.

XoXoXoX

When my eyes opened the first thing I noticed was that my face and the bed was wet. The second thing I noticed was that it was freezing, but it was the middle of summer, how could it be so cold? Maybe it was just my ever hyper imagination. Yeah, that sounds about right, my mind usually plays tricks on me, so it would be nothing new.

Slowly I get myself into a sitting position -which in turn caused a slight pang of pain behind my eyes, I blamed it on just having gotten up- and rub the sleep from my eyes. Grabbing the goggles and socks that were by my mattress and put them on. I wrapped the scarf around my neck and slipped my sneakers onto my feet. Gently I lean over Pichu's pillow and shake him using my fingertips "Time to wake up, Pichu." My voice was soft when I whispered the few words. The tiny mouse Pokémon stirred and opened his deep brown eye that were hazy from he quickly shook his head and hopped onto my shoulder.

Walking over to Ben, I repeated the action. The only difference was he didn't stir, and so, instead of whispering and shaking him gently, I rolled him onto the floor and said "Come on Ben, it's time to wake up." Just barely above a whisper. With a groan he opened his sleep filled eyes "Come one, we he to finish that mission." He nodded and grabbed the things he had taken off as well, slipping them on quickly. "You ready?"

"Ya."

"Alright, let's go." I didn't look in his eyes as we left the building silently. My mind was focused on my brother… Teran… a sad smile came on my face as I made the guardian sign to call Latias to me. Teran… we had loved each other, I needed him and he needed me. I still miss those days, the days when we would just play and love the fact that we were alive and healthy, and I could never tell myself that enough. As I climbed onto Latias I forced myself out of the past. Why was it that for some reason, no matter how hard I tried, they seemed to keep coming into my thoughts nowadays before I never thought about them, and it wasn't hard not to, but now it feels like it's all I can think about.

We flew in silence, the sky was turning from a deep navy blue to a light rosy hue; dawn had arrived. Pichu had taken his usual spot in my scarf. The stars had faded, and vanished as though they were stolen away by the rays of the sun. Every time the wind blew I could feel myself shiver and the goose bumps that came to my skin, it was early in the morning; I was allowed to be cold. My breath came out in small clouds of water vapor. But when I looked over to Ben I saw that he wasn't shaking from the cold at all, and his breath was creating clouds of water vapor. Weird, then again, I might just be too far away to see it.

Within minutes the two of us had made it to Mt. Sorbet and landed at its base, neither of us wanted to risk Articuno being there and being shot out of the sky (not really an experience I want to relive thank you very much). Sure it would be a trek to get to the top, but we both did it before, so it was no big deal. As soon as we entered the cave entrance to the mountain it felt like it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit (when in reality it was about 32 degrees Fahrenheit), I was shivering a lot more than before. "_Why is it so cold for some reason? I know it's Articuno's mountain but it was never this cold, was it?_"

I felt an arm wrap around my neck, a hand on my shoulder, and Pichu climbing onto the empty shoulder, turning my head I met Ben's eyes as he asked "You okay?"

Rolling my eyes, I duck under his arm and spin slightly so that I was one foot in front of him, still locking eye contact, and out from under his arm, and it sent Pichu to the stone, though I was still shivering; chills constantly being sent up my spine, goose bumps covering my skin. With a smile I replied "I'm fine." He nodded, and we continued walking…

At least we were until we had gotten out of the cave entrance and walked into the snow.

After only walking about ten steps into the area I fell on my knees and started coughing. I couldn't feel the frigid snow around my legs and feet, all I could feel was the coughs that came up. How they sent a pang to my chest every time they came out. It felt an eternity before they passed, and they left me shaking like a leaf; no one had to tell me that, I could feel it. For a while I just stayed on the ground Slowly I stood up shook my head and continued forward. "Summer?"

"Ya?" I asked, turning around. Both Ben and Pichu looked worried, it was just a cough, worst comes to worst IO had a cold, big wup, I'd live.

"You sure you're okay?" He was genuinely concerned, wasn't he?

With a sigh I shook my head "I'm fine. Worst comes to worst I have a cold. I'll live." He nodded, but he didn't look convinced. "Come on, let's get this over with. Then we can get to Canal Ruins, go to where we found Suicune, then get back to the Professor."

He smirked "Knowing him he's probably wondering what's taking us so long." Then there was an awkward silence that I didn't want to break, and Ben didn't want to break either –if he did, he would done it. I had stopped shivering… somewhat; I was still shaking, but it wasn't nearly as bad as after I had coughed.

For some reason, after that one fit, I had only coughed five other times, tops. Not that I was complaining or anything. If anything it was a relief, though Ben would still look at me like it would happen again any second, the kid really had to stop worrying about me I was fine. So I spoke my mind "Ben…" He turned to me, but we didn't make eye contact until I turned to him "I can tell you're still worried about what happened." Before he opened his mouth to speak I continued "I'm fine, okay. You can stop worrying."

He didn't reply, instead he just walked forward, the same look still on his face while a frown came to mine. All I did was tell him not to worry I mean really, I can take care of myself just fine. With a sigh I continued to follow behind him, Pichu had returned to his postition under my scarf, and had curled into a small ball. We stayed silent until we reached the top I tilted my head, Articuno wasn't here, that was strange. Then again, it had other places to live as well so it might be at once of its other homes. "Well, they aren't here." I turned to Ben and gave him a look that said 'No _really_.'

That's when that weird feeling came back, the same one that I had back to Faldera Volcano. There was really still no true way to explain what it was. "So… do you think we should try and find the crystal essence that World's End was talking about."

Ben shrugged "It'll give us a reason for taking so long."

"Sure he didn't assign us to do it, but better to do it since we're here. Personally, I'd rather not have to come here again to get something I could have gotten the first time." We stopped talking, and Ben went ahead and started pushing away the snow, he seemed less concerned about what happened earlier, so that was a relief. As for me, I just walked around the area, desperately hoping that the strange feeling would grow stronger or weaker depending on if I was closer or farther away.

For a while nothing changed. Ben was still shoveling, sometimes looking up to see me and give me this look that asked what I was doing, then he continued what he was doing. And I was just walking slowly following some strange feeling that might just be completely made up, and for a while I started to think it was too.

That's when I felt it.

Something pulsed. There was no other way to describe it. It was like a heartbeat, fast, harmonious, even, soothing. Kneeling down I started to remove the snow, layer, after layer, after layer. Soon it had gotten hard, I was close to the permafrost point, I could tell. Though something came into my hand, it was solid, it didn't melt in my palm. I knew it wasn't from the permafrost layer. Looking into my hand I saw the same thing that the girl with the deeper voice had in her hand near the end. I could feel it's pulse, like was alive or something, but it couldn't be.

I lifted it up to the cloudy sky, where its triangular prism shaped form shone and glistened better than the snow when the sun comes out. "Ben, I found it. Whether it's real or not, well, I have no clue. But at least we got it before World's End could."

The snow crunched under his feet as he walked over to look at it "Wow." Yeah, for him that was all he could say.

"Want to hold onto it?" I asked, with a smile that never came onto my face, but he could see it in my eyes.

The brown haired boy shook his head "You found it, you hold onto it."

I shrugged "Alright." Gently I placed it in my pocket. Walking over to the hole I made I took the dug up snow and pushed it back into place, I could tell by the crunches in the snow that Ben was doing the same. When the holes were completely covered we made our way down the mountain in silence. But I had to break it when I collided my hand with my head almost halfway down, remembering something that the grunts from Faldera had said.

When I turned to face Ben, he looked at me with questioning eyes, and before he could say anything I stopped him "We don't have to go to the Canal Ruins." If anything the confusion in his eyes grew with that one statement.

"But before you said-"

I was shaking my head "I know what I said, but I just remembered that those grunts never mentioned the places we found Suicune, or Entei, or Raikou. They just said Layuda Island, the ruins outside of that one village on Renbow, the Undersea Cavern, and the Rainbow Dais. And I guess they forgot to mention Mt. Sorbet."

"So you're saying the either have the one that's from there, or they don't have any at all."

"Exactly."

"So we could just head straight to Rand's once we get off the mountain?"

"Yup."

"Alright." With that we walked the rest of the way fairly silent. We never really had much to talk about, and it's not like we could try and do small talk seeing as we've seen each other a lot the past few weeks and just talked. Soon enough we were at the bottom and out of the cave. I hadn't even noticed we were until I felt the air warm up. The goose bumps that had formed on my skin vanished and I wasn't shivering anymore.

The sun shone brighter outside of the ice area, and I closed my eyes content with the warmth it gave. We called our Pokémon that we always used from flight and took off for the sky. Though they seemed… uncomfortable for some reason. Leaning in I whispered "What's wrong Latias?"

In response she said "La bru la." I don't really know what she said, so I asked a simple question

"Is it that crystal shard thing?" The red legendaries eyes widened slightly and she nodded. "I have one. You can feel it to, can't you? How it beats like a heart."

"La."

"Hey," I sat back and turned to Ben. "Do you have an answer? You said you'd give me an answer tomorrow. Well, it's tomorrow now."

With a sigh, I knew what he was talking about. Truefully I had hoped he had forgotten about it. I answered "I can't talk about it. Sorry"

He waved his hand "Alright no big deal. By the way, we're here." That's when I saw him descend from the sky and I felt Latias do the same. Time to tell the professor… this'll be fun.

XoXoXoX

**Important:** High School starts up next week, and I have color guard practice on the first day D: so expect updates to be slowed down significantly. When I do post it will probably be around 7 pm EST on weekdays, or I could just post on the weekends. Tell me what you peoples think I should do just so I have an opinian from others.

Permafrost: soil at or below the freezing point of water 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years (I do not own this definition. I got it off Wikipedia because I couldn't describe it in my own words). Big wup: just something I say instead of "big deal."

Later,

Ember


	9. Chapter 8: Now informed

This is it, the last update before school starts. Like I said last time, when school starts, expect updates to slow down sigifigantly. Not only do I have no clue when most of my Color Guard practices are going to be, but I'm also in chorus (love singing ^-^) and I have no clue when those practices are. But **I promise** I will try to update. Though, this would be a good time to bring up my curse... whenever I try to make a multi-chapter story and it goes into the school year I get writer's block, due to homework and such, to the point where I forget about its existance. Now I'm really hoping this doesn't happen with this story, but if for some reason I just stop updating all together for some reason, that's why. I'm extremely sorry that I had to break that to you peoples. BTW I know the tittle of this chapter is stupid.

**A Random Human:** Thanks, I sort of made her relatsionship with her brother like the relatsionship I have with mine, minus the part with the brother not caring about her anymore.

**RangerTakara: **Her reaction is kind of how mine would be, if I'm being honest. But, ya, she does miss them a lot. Even though it happened years ago she doesn't want to let go of the past, and, really, that is a terrable mistake. It's like I always say, the past is the past, you can't change it, there's no magical redo button, might as well just move on with life without worring about it.

**Ranger Belle:** *Smiles and shrugs of apology* Don't worry about it, I _know_ I'm dense, though I only realized it after you said Summer was. I thought back and realized "Hey, I'm dense too." I don't care, so you don't have to apologize. (but if it means a lot to you, I accept your apology :) ). *reads more* ya, I don't want to fall behind even thoughsomehow I have three honors classes one of which I don't even know why I was allowed to do it (fun.) Oh and in color guard you are garentied to hit yourself with the flag, there's no suger coating it you will, at the start of the season I chose to keep count of how many times I've done it, I lost count after 30. As for if Summer has an ability we don't know about... how can I answer that if I don't even know?

**Amazing Person:** *reads response* Game Freak owns pokemon? Look I don't pay attention to the opening sponsers I just rappibly press the start button and hope for the best. I'm going to look that up though. To Google! *googles it* I think you are misinformed. Nintendo has alway owned the rights to pokemon, I think Game Freak just helps with game development and stuff.

**Human Being:** Well... I'm just going to leave it as this. For me, for a story to be considered a tragedy someone must die. So there is a garentied at least one (more depending on where this story goes) character death in this story. I'm not going to suger coat it, someone will die, otherwise it isn't a true tragedy in my bizzar mind.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own nintendo, if I did,well, everything would go downhill from the start.

**Word count: **1,732 words

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 8**

**Now informed**

When we walked in my hand was in my pocket, clutching the pulsating shard, somewhat relieved that it hadn't fallen out of it and fell to the earth, whether it be in water or dirt would depend on where it fell, and Pichu was by my side. Rand, Leene and Nema had heard we came in and greeted us, and Rand told us the Professor Hastings was pacing back and forth waiting for us to get back. Ben had commented saying that we'd better not keep him waiting. So we walked up the wooden steps with Pichu following close behind.

Before I even reached the top of the steps I could hear the Professor ask Ben "So are you done patrolling yet?" Ben and I looked at each other and nodded towards the professor at the same time, to be honest the last time I did that with someone, in perfect unison, was when I was with Teran. By the time I was able to even get into the room, the professor wouldn't move from in front of the steps until I convinced him otherwise, Ben had already taken his spot at the book covered table; and so I went and took my spot on the opposite end and Pichu had hoped up ontop the table and was slowing climbing my shoulder. "So what did you find?"

"Well…" Ben started first, probably because he figured that he would take the shortest time, and, in truth, he would. "We decided that it would a good idea to split up. I would go to Tilikule and look there, and Summer would go to Faldera. Then we would meet up over Sophian and look their together." Professor Hastings just nodded, it was a simple sign telling him to continue. "I didn't find anything, but Summer says she did."

The professor looked at me and said "Well, go on, what did you find?"

I looked him in the eye and bit my lip, then turning my gaze to Ben, then to Pichu, and then, finally, to the ground before saying "I saw them. They were digging around the peak of Faldera Volcan, where Moltress usually was. They were talking about some stuff. The first thing I heard was a question, one of them was asking the others if they had found it yet."

"What was 'it'? Surely they must of said." The professor interrupted.

I nodded before continuing. "They didn't say what 'it' was for the longest time. Eventually one of them called it a crystal shard after someone had found it. One of them said they could only be found where legendries live; more specifically, Kanto's, Johto's, and Oblivia's legendries. Though they never mentioned the areas where Kanto's legendary dogs lived. They just mentioned Layuda Island, the ruins outside of that one village on Renbow, Cocona Village, the Undersea Cavern, and the Rainbow Dais. Note how they're all area's in Oblivia, so that leads me to believe that they have teams for each region.

"After that they went silent for a while because they had to get back to work and find the crystal shard thing. A few minutes passed and they found one, after one of them verified that it was what they were looking for she said that it might be real or fake and they would have to get the rest to find out. Then they left. I watched them go, then left and met up with Ben above Sophian Island-"

"And we decided after a few hours of walking we would look at Mt. Sorbet today." Ben interrupted "So we went to Booker's and slept there. When we woke up we went to the mountain, and saw they weren't there so we figured we could try and find the crystal shard thing before World End gets there. Took about an hour, but we found it. Summer has it in her pocket."

Professor Hastings looked at us, his expression was one of curiosity and impatience. He turned to me before saying "Well, come now, my dear, show us." With a nod I reached down into my pocket and pulled out the, still pulsing, shard looked at it, then looked at both of them before I outstretched my hand for the professor to take it. As soon as it was in his hands I could feel the pulsing stop, and I felt a little light headed with the sudden difference in pressure from the pulsing that was constantly in the back of my mind, but I ignored it; I'd be fine.

It was a relief; don't get me wrong, when I was holding that thing it felt like, I don't know how to describe it, it was like… like someone had given me something that felt like I owned it in the first place. Even then that's not a very good way of saying what it felt like. I found my eyes always on the shard as Professor Hastings examined it, for some reason it really _did_ feel like it belonged to me. But I know it doesn't, I just found it in the snow and brought it here, if anything Articuno owns it. Besides it it'll be more useful to the Union then it would to me.

Taking my eyes off it I looked at the table and mentally scolded myself for feeling like it was originally mine when I know better. "I'll show this to Leanne, perhaps she'll be able to tell us more about this interesting find." Ben and I nodded, and I could hear the professor walking down the steps. Within minutes I could hear two different footsteps, and voices, coming up the stairs. I looked up and saw Leanne and the professor just coming into the room, they were talking but I didn't bother to listen to what they were saying, it was between the two of them, not all four of us.

I could hear Leanne saying "It's going to take me a while to find any information on these. I doubt that anyone has ever heard of them before, but I might be able to find something."

"Very well." Professor Hastings sighed. That's when I raised my head and he turned to me and Ben "While Leanne is researching see if you can find any other shards in Oblivia. I shall contact headquarters and tell them to assign the rangers in Kanto and Johto to search as well, and report their progress and keep me in contact." Again, I wanted to ask if I could help the Kanto rangers, but I stopped myself. They could handle it, they didn't need me, my job was here, not over there. And you know what, I accepted it.

Ben nodded "Alright. Come on, Summer." He grabbed my hand and pulled me along. Have you ever noticed how it's harder to keep up with someone when they're dragging you? Like when the persons running, you know full well you can keep up with them under normal circumstances, but when they're pulling your arm you can't no matter how hard you try. Within second we're outside. "Stay together or split up?" It was a simple question, no explanation was needed for it though.

After thinking I replied smiling "Together." "_It'll be easier for the both of us_" A single line that I hid behind the statement. He called his Starraptor and I called Latias. Kneeling down I let Pichu off my shoulder and said "I know how much you don't like flying, stay with Rand and Nema, just for today. Alright, buddy."

Instantly his ears drooped, but he nodded in agreement "Pichu."

"Now don't take it personally, it's just for today." I smiled at him, and he nodded again, this time though, he looked a bit happier.

"You done?" I looked at Ben, he was already on his Starraptor and waiting for me to join him.

I nodded and climbed on Latias. "Let's go." With a small smile I waved Pichu see you later and we took off into the cloudy sky. A sky that made it look like it was going to rain soon, but it didn't feel like it would. Rain has a certain feel to it, it felt dry before it starts and the blows wind is a little cooler than normal. This felt slightly humid, but the occasional breeze blew somewhat cool. "Where do you want to start?" I asked.

He thought for a second, not like there was a good answer. Let's face it, with the Undersea Cavern being, well, underwater obviously, the Rainbow Dias doesn't exactly have any place to hide it unless it has a super-secret panel or something, the ruins outside Cocona Village has a lot of people around it, and Layuda Island has the possibility of being hit by lightning the options were simple, yet not. After a minute he answered saying "Layuda Island, might as well get it over with." I nodded in agreement. Personally I would have chosen the Rainbow Dias, but I'm not Ben, and it doesn't really matter the order we get them in, so it was fine by me.

It only took a few seconds before Ben was on his way, I had told Latias to wait. I figured, if we wait it means she could go fast and do her tricks if she wanted to. After all, I had told her next time she could, and it is the next time. Though something just didn't feel right… it felt like something that had once been lost for a long time had just been found. But it felt so far away, like the distance from here to Kanto. I ignored it, and waited a few more seconds and whispered "Alright, you can go." before the two of us took off. Latias was smiling and doing her thing, while I clung to her neck, trying not to fall, but all the while laughing.

If only I had known not to ignore that feeling. Then maybe I would have found out what was going on sooner.

XoXoXoX

Now before you can ask "how can she tell if it's about to rain or not?" I can explain. You **can** actually tell if it's going to rain or not without the weather chanel just by feel. The air will feel drier and cooler then normal and the sky is generally going to be gray and there will be wind. Now i can't gerentie that this method is always going to work, but sometimes it does. And I guess I should explain the whole Undersea Cavern area as well. Alright so for those of you that don'tknow if you catch _every pokemon in the game_ you get a quest that allows you to go to an area in the game called the Undersea Cavern, when there you can capture Lugia and get his guardian sign. I know this from a website called Bulbapedia, not from personal experience (I tried to catch every pokemon in the game but I got bored, not to mention someone deleted my file D: ). Well see you later, and sorry for the delay.

Ember


	10. Chapter 9: Encounter

Okay, before I say anything else I just have to say, sorry! I'm so sorry that this didn't get up until now. Simply put, first day of school, I got back and didn't want to do anything that involved thinking, then yesterday I had a football game to go to with the pep bad to see the opposing team's marching bad aznd watch my school's team lose, like always. At one point we had to get onto the bus during the 3rd quarter, we had no clue what was going on so we started joking around saying that we couldn't have surrendered already, and that we needed a white flag to twirl. It was a fun night to say the least, even though I don't like football. Just saying now, this is one of those chapters that I'm not really that proud of, so, ya.

**A Random Human:** thanks :)

**Ranger Belle:** maybe that's another way of telling if it's going to rain or not, I don't know. As for how Summer thought of the shard... I just felt like it was something I needed to add in for the plots sake, you'll understand why later on. *continues to read comment* Does this mean you don't like ILA as well? Simply put I hate ILA, my teacher was so boring; I swear at least one person fell asleep in her class. And thanks for the good luck wish, I'll need it.

**Amazing Person:** *Shrugs* Don't worry about it, it was an honest mistake that anyone could make. And, ya, going for all the pokemon in the game can get tedious after a while, but that isn't stopping me from doing it in Shadows of Almia.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own nintendo, though I hope to work there someday if I don't get a job for NASA.

**Word count: **2,103 words

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 9**

**Encounter**

The trip was fun, to say the very least. It was probably the most fun I'd had in a while, and I had a pretty good feeling it would be the only fun I would get for a long time. When the island had gotten closer I could feel the drop in air pressure, Latias had slowed down and stopped doing her tricks as well, and I could see the gray towering cloud and Ben on his starraptor only a few feet away from me. But I was more focused on the cumulonimbus cloud up ahead. I could hear the thunder and see the flashes of lightning from the ever present thunder storm that surrounded the island, never liked thunderstorms, especially after that tornado in Sinnoh only a month after I'd been transferred.

I wasn't there, but I'd been sent to see the damage and see if I could help out in any way. It was horrible. Houses were torn down, debris was tossed on the ground making it impossible to take a single step with stepping on what used to be someone's home. And in the place where the tornado had actually touched you could see the trail in the form of a small crevice that was about three feet deep and four feet wide.

Just from being there and seeing what happened I was lugubrious, so much destruction… I had thought only legendary Pokémon could do something like that. And when I had found out that it had just started out as a thunderstorm, my whole view on them changed. Before then I had actually loved them, seeing the lightning flash a vivid blue in the dark sky, hearing the rain poor, and the booming thunder that would always come soon after a spark of lightning, I loved it. But after seeing the wreckage of that tornado, well, now they scare me. I keep thinking that there's going to be a tornado; I never let my fear show, but that doesn't mean that I don't have it.

As the cloud drew nearer I tried to calm the nerves that were slowly triggering my fear. "_It's not a thunderstorm, it's just a cloud of lightning created by Zapdos._" I kept repeating that one phrase in my mind, over, and over, and over again. There was a job to be done; I couldn't let some stupid fear get the better of me. Lightning flashed, I flinched and scolded myself mentally for it. We weren't even on the island yet and I flinched at the lightning. "_Come on, Summer, you're better than that_." It was a lie, I wasn't better than that; fear isn't something you can just overcome on your first try. Sometimes it takes ten tries to get over it, but you have to look beyond your fear to see the gold; and I knew that, but that doesn't make it any easier.

Within minutes the dark cloud loomed over Ben and I and we began to descend to the ground; in my case trying not to let my nerves get the best of me. The familiar gray rocky walls surrounded us and I knew there wasn't any turning back. Then again, there never was. Besides, I just want to get this over with. As soon as my feet touch the ground there was a flash of lightning, and a resounding clap of thunder. I think I jumped, whether from surprise or fear, I don't know, but I mentally scolded myself for it anyway.

"You ready?" Ben asked from my right side. I just nodded, not trusting my voice. He let his Starraptor fly away and I let Latias go as well. Telling her that next time will probably be the same as this one, but that I couldn't guarantee it. Watching her fly away, flipping as she goes, made me realize just how free she was. It was like she didn't have a single worry, and to be honest, I was jealous. I can't believe I'm saying this but, I am, I really am. She has no one to hold her back from doing what she wants. And, even though I know she wants to, I feel like I'm weighing her down without trying to. The legend has nothing to hold her back, she can go wherever she chooses as long as I don't need her, and just thinking about that made me feel guilty. Latias could be wherever she wants, whenever she wants, gravity must be a joke to her. Sometimes I find myself wishing I could just fly away on my own, without a Pokémon under me, ha, like that'll ever happen.

We walked together in silence, going through two of cave like room before coming into a room that was open to the air, water on most of the ground. It was _this_ room, great. The room that only enhanced my fear of thunder storms. After we walked a few steps in we could hear a young girl's voice "Now what's a nice couple of kids doing in a place like this?" Ben turned his head all over the place trying to find the voice's source. Me on the other hand had a good feeling that she was right above us, only just behind us.

With a sigh I turned around and stated "Look, I know you're up there, just come down and stop trying to play hide and seek." A young girl with long black hair jumped down behind us from above from above us, there was probably a ledge there or something up there, and landed on her feet with one hand on the ground, the other in the air. She stood up; eyes closed before opening them, showing deep blue purple eyes, and smiled lightly.

Crossing her arms over her black tank top of her uniform she huffed "I wasn't playing hide and seek, but, hey, whatever makes you happy." Her left arm reached down, and her hand reached into a leather pouch that was strapped to the belt of her black slacks. When it came out a pokeball was in her hand, she pressed the middle button and it expanded in her hand. "Let's do this, then. Shame I have you do this, but, I have to do what I was told." She nodded and whistled.

There was the sound of water splashing behind us. I turned on my heels, a boy with dirty blonde hair and green eyes wearing a black shirt that matched the girl's. In his hand was a pokeball as well. Both threw them at the same time reveling a Charizard from the boy, and a Lapras from the girl. "You want to take the Lapras?" I asked Ben turning my head to him. He nodded. "Alright, let's go."

"Capture on!" We yelled simultaneously, our styler releasing the small disk and having them swirl around our separate targets. Fire flashed onto the field and combined with the flash of lightning together they created a bright purple tinted light. In a mere minute the Charizard had been captured and the boy returned the Pokémon to its pokeball. He growled from frustration, but, somewhat managed to calm himself down. I turned back to Ben, who had only just finished capturing the Lapras, and the girl had it return to its pokeball.

I smiled, Ben had always been a little slower than me when it came to capturing Pokémon, but he looked good when he did it. "Looks like you got us beat." The girl said with a smirk, almost as though she was hiding something, she nodded to the boy who walked over and stood by her side. "Go on ahead. See if you can stop us." That's when she closed her eyes and jumped into the air, and, at the height of her jump, a Starraptor flew underneath her to land on. Then the boy repeated the action. She waved "Tata." And then the two flew off. To say I was impressed was an understatement. For the longest time I thought only rangers could do that.

A minute passed and we were still staring into the air, in a daze, lost in thoughts that didn't exist. Shaking my head I lowered it to the ground and said "Come on, we have to go." Thunder boomed and lightning flashed for the thousandth time, and I could still feel my nerves jump at the sound. Slowly I continued forward, to be honest, I didn't know if Ben was following me, I just wanted to get out of this place. It took a few minutes, running from dry land to dry land between strikes of lightning, but I got out of that room… only to be greeted with another one that was the same as the room I just got out of. More lightning, more thunder, I winced.

I just wanted to get out of here. "_Stop it, Summer_." My mind scolded me out of instinct "_You have a job to do still_." With that in mind I took a single step into the part of the floor that was flooded by an inch of water. "Summer!" Ben yelled behind me causing me to flinch. "Thanks for leaving me behind. You could have told me that you were going on."

Shaking my head I responded "I did. You just didn't listen." I looked into his hazel eyes and smiled lightly, a single smile that lasted all of a second. "You were still looking at the sky impressed by the way girl and boy mounted their Starraptors."

"You were too!" He yelled accusingly.

"Yes, but I stopped. Told you we had to continue. Assumed you heard me, and moved on. Not realizing that you were still staring at the gray sky as though you'll see it again!" Silence was the only response I got from him. "Got you there." A smirk came onto his face. I felt a push on my lower torso, around where my stomach was, and I fell into the water. He laughed and I glared at him. More lightning sparked in the sky, and thunder rumbled above us causing me to wince again from fear.

Ben held out his hand, offering me to take it, I reached out and grabbed his hand, even though I didn't need it. When I was back on my feet, by backside soaked from the pooled water, I pushed him to the solid ground "That was for pushing me." And I laughed, holding out my hand for him to grab. He took it and I pulled him up. "Now come on." I ran through the water, feeling the water that was already in my shoes slosh around, more water entering my shoes and soaking my feet. It took two minutes to get from one side of the room to the other.

The process repeated multiple times, going from room to room until finally the last room was in site. Zapdos' perch could be seen as well as a group of six grunts from Worlds End. It was just like what I saw at Faldera Volcano, they were digging, but they were joking, and having fun while doing it. If anything they seemed like some sort of family. The type of family mine never was… I sighed. I really have to stop thinking about them. The past is the past; I should be over it by now, so why do I keep thinking about it. I have a new family now; the rangers are my family, Ben in my family even though I'll never tell him that.

"So… what now?" Ben asked me. His question rang through the air. We could always confront them. But, we could also just wait until they find it and encounter then then. Or we could just let them have, no that's not an option. If we do confront them one of them could find it and get away. What to do, what to do? That's when the idea came to me.

I looked at Ben and replied "One of us confronts them and captures the Pokémon while the other looks for the shard while they're distracted."

"Alright and who's going to look for the shard." His voice sounded curious, almost hopeful for something that I'll never know.

"I'll look for the shard."

XoXoXoX

lugubrious: looking and sounding sad and dismal (I do not own google). Well... not my best work, but it'll have to do. Sorry about the delay, but it's up.

**Important:** updates might go down from twice a week, to once a week, because of my work load from high school and everything else.

Later,

Ember


	11. Chapter 10: At least they won't have it

Oh my gosh, I am _so_ sorry about the lack of updates lately :( But I got this in at least. In this chapter you'll find reason number two for why this is rated T.

**A Random Human:** Well... I guess you're right, high school's high school. I'm just afraid that if I don't update at least once a week I'll forget about this story do to my curse. :( I put the kiddy fight in there because, let's face it, siblings fight a lot and I'm going for a brother sister relationship between those two so it works.

**Ranger Belle:** Thanks. And, yes! We are getting into the actual plot, it only took 10 chapters, but it's there! You think those two trainers are the people from Summer's dreams... interesting idea, but no, they aren't. Wait... you have white flags for your color guard, sweat! I actually just found out that we're getting two white flags on thursday, now we have something to sway and say "we surrender" with, lol.

**RangerTakara: **Um... there are no trainers in Oblivia... but this is, like, a month after the game, so things could change. Read on, you'll see who those two were by the end of the chapter.

**random fan:** thanks, glad you like it.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own nintendo, never have, never will

**Word count: **2,108 words

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 10**

**At least they won't have it**

Ben looked at me his eyes shone with an emotion I couldn't really identify. Anger? Why would he be angry, he had no reason to be. Concern? That weird coughing fit back at Mt. Sorbet had never happened again, heck, I don't even know what caused it, and I can take care of myself so there wasn't anything to be concerned about. Confusion? That would make sense, it's not like he knows about that weird feeling I get around those things, it's not like he knows that I can feel their location, so it's not like he would understand why I said that one sentence so confidently. Uncertainty? I always was better than him when it came to capturing Pokémon, and he was usually better at finding things. Maybe it was a mix of emotions. Yeah, that sounds about right, a mix of emotions that I couldn't understand without being told what they were.

"You sure about that?" The question seemed to tell me all I needed to know. He really did _not_ think it was a good idea. But, you know what, if I didn't know better, I'd agreed with him; but I do know better, and I know what I'm doing. Looking him in the eye, I smiled and nodded.

"Ya, I'm sure." He still had that unidentifiable look on his face. He didn't believe me, causing me to sigh. "I know what I'm doing so stop worrying! You and I both know I can take care of myself, I'll be fine." Grabbing his shoulders I turned him to the cave exit, and started to push him forward causing him to stumble forward. When the exit was a few inches I shoved him forward and he tripped over his own feet into the room, forcing me to stifle a giggle. I stepped back and hid, waiting for the right time, listening. That is, before curiosity got the best of me and I turned my head to see what was happening.

The group of World's End members immediately looked up from what they were doing and some of them climbed out of there holes, while others jumped. I smirked, so far, so good. "Hey what are you doing here, kid?" a boy with a voice that sounded like a twenty year old asked, he had blonde hair and memorizing sea green eyes that even I could see from where I was. He was the fourth to the right in the group of six, a girl with navy blue hair, almost like Nema's, and stormy gray eyes to his left, and another boy with oak wood brown hair and chocolate brown eyes to his right.

"Don't tell me those two messed up already. They said they were great trainers." A girl with sky blue eyes and dirty blonde hair complained. She was the first person to the right, and had the boy with the oak wood brown hair and chocolate brown eyes to her left. So those two people were grunts, would explain why they wore black. There was another flash of lightning, and another crash of thunder that caused me to flinch. I really hated being afraid of thunder storms, especially in a place and time like this.

A girl with jet black hair and almost electric green eyes, like emeralds but not, piped up saying "Does it matter?! Now why are you here kid? There's nothing here of any value." She seemed to say that9 like she believed that, but I knew better.

Another boy, this one with soil brown hair and silvery eyes said "He's a ranger, damn it. Can you not see that you idiot." The whole time Ben was sort of just watching them. To be honest, part of me wanted to laugh. They only _just_ found out that he's a ranger, wow, just wow.

"Oi!" The first girl to the left said, she had oil black hair and seemingly endless black eyes. "Instead of just talking, maybe we should, oh I don't know, do something about it!"

The girl with the deep navy blue hair rolled her eyes before speaking up "I agree." She pulled out two pokéballs from a small pouch that was attached to the belt of her uniform. "Let's just get this over with so we can get back to work." For a moment they all seemed to agree and pulled out two pokéballs each.

The girl with the emerald eyes smiled and nodded at her colleges, and I watched as they threw one of their two pokéballs in the air at the same time, perfectly synchronized. There was a red light, a crack of lightning, a crash of thunder, it was almost as if they had organized the entire thing without even trying. But I knew better, it was nothing more than pure luck. Though, it looked really cool, even if it was just because of dumb luck.

The six Pokémon were out in front of Ben, and I could actually see that he was legitimately nervous about the fact that he technically might have to catch twelve Pokémon in a row. There was a Swampert, Rampardos, Sceptile, Altaria, Skarmory, and a Mightyena. All different types of Pokémon, none of them had any similar classing, well… that sucks. The six grunts all said in unison "GO!" and then, all I can say is, chaos. It was chaos, but it gave me the opportunity to get out of the cave.

I could hear Ben's shaking voice yell "C-capture on!" The kid actually was scared, wow. Generally I'm the scared one, but, then again, I'm not against six fully evolved Pokémon just because I was the distraction; and if I failed that would mean getting captured and endangering my partner... no pressure, Ben, no pressure. Taking a deep breath I closed my eyes for a second before slowly making my way out of the cave. The jagged wall was at my back as I slowly crept around the chaotic battle.

To be honest, I'm glad I'm not the one doing the capturing, I'd probably break my styler because of the pressure. Slowly I made my way around the rocky area, desperately hoping that I'd feel the pulse like I did before. I was halfway through the area, and Ben had two of the Pokémon to go, though I had a feeling that they would just release six more when he was done.

I had been walking past one of the many holes they dug when I felt the pulse putting pressure on the back of my mind. It was strong, not as strong as it was when I was above it on Mt. Sorbet, but still pretty strong. Turning my head, hoping that it would pinpoint the direction it came from, sadly I had no such luck, I took a single step forward, completely forgetting that there was a hole right in front of me. Looking back on it, I still can't figure out how I forgot about it. Guess it's just one of those things you can never understand.

My foot slipped, and I fell into the hole, my face colliding with the rock. Picking myself up I could feel something warm and sticky run down the side of my face. Raising a hand and touching my forehead, I could feel my skin burn slightly out of irritation, when I brought my hand back down, the tips of my fingers were covered in blood. A flash of lightning, a crash of thunder, and a pulse… a pulse! That's it! I had found it! Sure I managed to scrap my head in the process, but that didn't matter, it's not like I'd die from a scrap. If I did then that'd be pathetic, I mean really, if I could survive falling at least one thousand feet into water, without a parachute, and being hit with a plasma cannon, then I can survive a little scratch.

I moved my bloody hand across the stone trying to find the shard. When I turned my body to try the other sides I felt something cut through my skin, more specifically, my right leg. "Shit." I whispered harshly under my breath. Never liked cursing, but when I did, it was because I was either a) extremely angry/annoyed or b) I messed up. Looking down I saw a small pickaxe, it's tip was in my leg. "That's gonna hurt to take out." Slowly I put my hands on the handle thinking "_Well… I'll have to do it eventually. On the count of three. One, two, three_!" I took a deep breath closed my eyes and bit my lip before removing the pick from my leg.

There was pain, it hurt, a lot, but I couldn't scream. That would give me away and ruin the entire point of this. The picks tip was covered in crimson fluid and it caused me to wince, and it didn't help that at the same time lightning flashed and thunder rolled. "Alright" I whisper "Now to find that shard" My hands moved along the wall, and I could still feel the blood trickling down the side of my face and now my leg. The pulsing was still there, but it wasn't like before. Before it was just like the one at Mt, Sorbet, now it feels sporadic, off beat, a little faster than normal.

My hand continued to move up and down the rocky wall until the uneven pulse felt as though it were right under my palm. When I moved my hand I saw the glimmer. There is was, in the rock, shining even though there was no sun. Taking the bloodstained pick I gently started to mine it out, my head pounding from the pulse and the sound. I could barely hear Ben saying "Capture on!" for the second time today. He must have finished the first six and they sent out another group. "_Just hang on Ben, I almost have it_."

The shard was almost completely out, or at least it looked that way to me. My vision was slowly blurring due to the fact that the blood was starting to cover it slowly. No one had to tell me that there was a puddle of blood under me, because I could feel it under me. Another minute later I heard the sound of something falling, and I could feel the pulse moving. In truth, I would never get used to feeling that pulse from something that wasn't a Pokémon or human, it's just so odd.

I moved my hands under the pulse and I felt something hit my hands, and I could feel the pulse calm down a bit, though it was still faster than a normal heartbeat. Closing my eyes I leaned back against the rock wall behind me, taking long deep breaths. Thunder crashed, crimson life flowed, and the sounds of a capture raged on. Moving my arm I wiped the blood away from my eyes and opened them. It had cleared my sight, not by much, but it was better. Slowly I moved the shard into my pocket and put my hands on my leg wound, hoping to suppress the amount of sticky red fluid was coming from it. "_Did it really go that far in_?" My mind questioned. If it did or not I didn't know, I couldn't check. Another crash of thunder, that meant another flash of lightning had passed, the familiar popping sound, that meant Ben had captured at least one of the six Pokémon, maybe two, an off-beat pulse, that meant I had completed one objective and that World's End wouldn't get this one.

Even though there were probably a lot more where this one came from, at least they don't have this one. Real or fake, it didn't matter. We had two now, possibly more if you count the fact that there are rangers in Kanto and Johto looking for them now. Though… who knows how many they have, for all we know they could have all the real ones and we wouldn't know it until it's too late. With these uneasy thoughts, darkness started to intrude my vision and take over.

Before I even knew what was going on, I had slipped unconscious.

XoXoXoX

Before you ask, yes I made the World's End member's look different. I didn't want to have it like the game where there are two sprits for the grunts, one male, one female, I wanted them to not look like twins, it bugged me. Another reason why it's rated T is blood. And, yes, I left you off an a cliff-hanger, sorry. I'll update soon, hopefully.

Later,

Ember


	12. Chapter 11: Many awakenings

Nothing to say other than that this is a filler chapter and it had fluff. So... ya.

**A Random Human:** *insert evil luagh here* yes the dreaded cliff-hangers of doom that I also love using. :)

**RangerTakara:** Yes, and knowing me there will be a bit of it later on. Sorry, I didn't mean to make you cringe, so I'm going to give you a heads up now that there will be more mentions of blood to come.

**Ranger Belle:** *raises hands in succsess* YES! I'm not alone! It is so annoying. And I like your idea that they have a cloning facility somewher better than your sisters idea of the wigs, though that would also make sense, it's not nearly as interesting.

**Random Fan:** *tilts head* What do you mean? You know what I'm not going to poke my nose where it might not belong so I won't pry. Thanks for the review.

**Disclaimer:** I will never ever ever ever ever own the rights to Pokemon.

**Word Count: **2,236 words

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 11**

**Many awakenings**

The first time I woke up, well, I wasn't really awake. My eyes wouldn't open; they felt as heavy as lead, so that left me stranded in a world of black, with only a vague sense of what was going on around me. First I noticed that I was bent over something, laying on my stomach, what it was I wouldn't find out for a long time. A breeze blew past, so I might have been in the air, I wouldn't ever truly know that though. There was a faint pulse in the back of my mind, uneven, slow, harsh, but it was there; only just barely fellable beyond the throbbing in my right leg and about three inches above my left eye. Though that faint sporadic pulse was all I needed to feel then. Good, World's End didn't have the shard, and, if I have my way, they won't _ever_ have it.

I couldn't feel anything running down my face, though it felt crusty, and slightly wet. Maybe the scratch had tapered off to prevent any further bleeding. My leg on the other hand, something was still running down it. Did the tip of that pick really go that far into my leg? When I saw it; it didn't look that deep. It had to have only gone as far as a centimeter in. Looks can be deceiving, I guess. Unconscious was tugging me into its cold grip. But, before it could pull me under, I managed to hear someone mutter "Come on, come on, hurry up." Then I moved under the fine line between consciousness and unconsciousness, its icy grip pulling me under.

The second time I woke up I couldn't feel anything dripping down my leg, and my head didn't feel crusty or slightly wet. Actually, it felt as though someone had put some form of pressure on those areas and dried them. But it could have just been my imagination. I tried opening my eyes; they didn't feel like they weighed as much as lead, maybe as much as aluminum or plastic, so I actually managed to open them slightly. Though, I had to close them immediately. Darn it, the room was to bright, it hurt my eyes.

I tried opening my eyes, slower this time, hoping that it wouldn't hurt as much. Once my eyes were open as far as they would go, I immediately felt confused. Sure my vision was hazy, but this was _not_ the hole I fell unconscious in on Layuda Island. Though, I couldn't determine if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. Good because I probably won't bleed to death, bad because I have no clue where I am right now, good because I might be at Rand's or Booker's, bad because World's End might have beat Ben and taken both of us hostage. Actually, cross out that last one. Ben is a top ranger, he wouldn't lose to some grunts, he's better than that.

There was no one else in the room that I could see through my haze filled vision. Raising my hand to my head was an effort that wasn't worth it. My arms weighed a ton. Ugh. I hated it. It would be my luck that all this would happen. Looking back on it, I was in far better condition back then, than what I'm in now. But that still doesn't change the fact that I hated it. The simple fact that I felt like everything weighed tons made me feel useless, still does, and that annoys me more than anything else. That's when I noticed something, just barely though, despite the fact that my head and leg were still throbbing (which was really starting to annoy me) I couldn't feel any pulse… no pulse… the shard! I wanted to try getting up, but somehow, I knew that would be a bad idea. Sleep started to cloud my mind. "_No, not now_!" I thought frantically. This was _not_ the time to be falling asleep. Where was the shard, I swore if World's End took it… the threat would always remain incomplete as I fell into unconsciousness for the third time that day.

The third and final time I woke up the first two things I realized was a) I was in the same room, and b)the room wasn't hazy anymore, but it was darker. Not that it mattered much, I could still see the shadowy outlines of the major pieces of furniture that was in the room. There was a chair a few feet to my left, what I think might be bookshelves on the right wall until they stop before a window, a desk on the other side of the room with a box or something on top of it, and then scattered around the room were pieces of what might have been machines that might have worked at one point but where dismantled.

My head was still throbbing, but my leg just felt numb, it was as though it was never there, I could hardly even feel it was there. When I tried to block out the throbbing that was resonating throughout my skull I was rewarded with nothing. No pulse from the shard, I really didn't have it anymore, did I? "Dang it." I muttered harshly, trying to raise my arm, at least it didn't feel like it weighed a ton now, I hit my hand against my head. Not the best idea in the world, and I honestly don't even know why I did it. What I do know is that I must have hit the spot where the scratch was because a flare of pain built up behind my eyes before exploding, to which I responded with a hiss of pain. A single word came out of my mouth, harsh, silent, self-loathing, venomous "Idiot." The worst part was I knew it was true.

That was when I felt something soft around my head, it was probably a bandage or something. Slowly I put my arm down to my side, and closed my eyes. "Idiot." For the first time that day unconsciousness wouldn't come, but I wanted it to. At least if I was unconscious I couldn't feel any shame. I lost it, how could I lose it? "Idiot…" Tears were starting to form, I wouldn't let them fall. I was stronger than that. Even if it was true. "Why am I so stupid?"

How could I have let that happen? I had no real clue where I was, though I could try to guess, or, more importantly, where Ben was and if he was okay. Why was I beating myself up over some shard, I know it's important, but more important than a human life? I didn't think so. Ben was far more important than if I was okay, and, maybe, more important than some stupid shard. Wait… did I really just think that? Not that Ben isn't important or anything, after all life is something we only get to live once and we don't have any second chances. And, ugh, what am I thinking?! He's practically my adopted brother, I'll never tell him that to his face, but, why am I even still thinking about this?!

Where was he? Was he okay? So long as he was okay I figured I'd be fine. Guess, I really did see him as family. When Teran was still there for me, I guess I cared for him the same way, ugh, what does it matter? I just wanted to know if the kid was alright, why was my mind going so far into it. The door opened and light from outside invaded the dark space causing me to close my eyes in a sad attempt to block out the light. More light flooded the room, and I could hear the door close. There were two pairs of footsteps coming closer to me, one fast, and one slow. "Pichu pi!" Suddenly I could feel the right side barely move down from the pressure. So, wait, if Pichu was here, okay so I was at Rand's so chances are that Ben's alright. That's good. Someone chuckled, though it seemed upset, dark, lifeless.

I could feel small paws touch my left arm, and I could feel the right side of the bed come down even more due to the extra pressure on that end. A hand touched mine, and the person whispered "Hope you get up soon, Sum, we're waiting for ya." Ben… as much as I wanted to tell him not to call me Sum… but, I think, just this once, I'll let it slide. Slowly a smile made its way onto my face. His hand left mine. "Sum…?" Okay, I let that slide once, not a second time.

"I thought I told you not to call me that, Benji." My voice was sort of harsh, but it didn't matter to me. And, I didn't even have to open my eyes to tell that he was either a) blushing or b) blushing with a surprised look on his face. Knowing him, it was probably the second option. When I opened my eyes, I was right. His mouth was slightly open, his hazel eyes wide with happiness and shock, and he was blushing, barely, but it was enough to be noticed.

Arms wrapped around me and pulled me into a tight embrace, now it was my turn to be startled, but that quickly wore off, and I returned the embrace. Everything seemed to leave my mind, the fact I couldn't really feel my leg, my head slightly throbbing, everything, it was like someone had come and wiped my mind without even realizing it. And, you know what, I didn't mind; I really didn't. I don't know how long we stayed like that, arms around each other, I just know by the end of it one of us was crying silent tears of relief, maybe even both of us. "You okay, dude?"

He pulled away, his face actually did look a little wet, but maybe it was just a trick of the light. "I'm fine. What I'm worried about is you." I thought I saw him cringe slightly, okay it couldn't have been that bad, I mean really. There's no way that it was enough for him not like remembering it.

With a sigh, I shook my head, not the best idea I ever had, slight pain flared up behind my eyes and I strategically hid the wince that had followed soon after. Locking eyes with him I muttered "I'm fine, Ben, I can handle myself. There just cuts, not like I'll die." Then I smiled lightly "But I'm sorry I made you worry." He smiled back, and hugged me again. I felt the pressure on the bed lighten ever so slightly, Pichu must have left, I couldn't blame him, who would want to watch to friends hug? Sure it's cute the first time, but after the second time, it isn't really cute anymore.

"Just don't do it again." He whispered. I could tell he was sincere, I just hoped he wouldn't make me promise it. That is the one promise that no own can keep. The promise that I'd stay safe, no one can keep that promise, it's impossible to.

But for some reason I said it. "Alright. I'll try."

"Promise?" That made me shake my head and bite my lip.

"I can't make a promise I know I can't keep." Was my simple reply. After a few seconds silence reigned, neither of us spoke a word. "Did Leanne find anything on the shards yet?" It was all I could do, a sad attempt to change the subject.

He smiled, it was small, but it was there. "Ya, she did. Not much but she found something."

"Alright, we better go hear what she found."

"You sure you're up for that?" His voice was skeptical, worried, but gentle all the same. "I mean, you have been sleeping for almost three days now." I raised an eyebrow, I had really been asleep for that long? Somehow, that didn't surprise me, yet, at the same time, it did. So that would mean I had woken up at least once a day. After thinking on what he had asked I nodded my head.

"I'm fine."

"Okay then, I'll get Leanne to come here."

"Why make her come to us, it's not like I can't walk."

"Still, you really shouldn't be leaving the room, none the less, the bed."

"Ben, I'm _fine_. How many times do I have to say it. Worst comes to worst you have to help me up the stairs, big deal."

"Well… if you're sure-"

"Which I am."

"Alright let's go." I smiled and started to move out from the blankets while a single thought seeped into my mind. "_Maybe I can finally figure out why I can feel those things_."

XoXoXoX

Hope you liked the filler chapter. I'll see you next week when we finally find out the importantance of the crystal shards.

Later,

Ember


	13. Chapter 12: Crystal Essence

Ohmygosh,ohmygosh,ohmygosh,ohmygosh I'm so sorry for not updating until now! Long story short I had color guard all week until 4:30 of sometimes 7 or 8 o'clock at night. Not to mention I had a story project for English where I had to write a satire so I was working on that whenever I could and I almost forgot about this, then there were other projects. AND there was Hurricane Sandy leaving me without power and internet for a about two weeks. I'm so sorry :( I didn't mean to forget it. But I did manage to try and write _something_ though. Here's what I have for a patcetic chapter 12.

**A Random Human:** Ya, I agree. But since I based her of me somewhat, she 's stubborn, to the point where it can annoy her friends (guilty. I've annoyed my cousins and friends because I was so stubborn.)

**Ukulele Pichu: **I'm really glad you're enjoying the story so far.

**RangerTakara: **I agree, it was kinda adroable in its own way. And, no, Summer isn't dead. But, but, remember what I've said so many times before (I'm saying it so many times so that when it does happen everyone is prepared) this is a tragedy, and for it to be a tragedy story, for me, someone has to die. I don't know who, I don't know when, and I don't know how. I just want you to be ready for it when it does happen. As for if they'll be more fluff between Ben and Summer, probably, but it'll be completely accedental, like all the fluff so far. (No I'm not joking, all the fluff is done by accedent.) Off-topic: I'm extremely sorry if you thought my review of your story was harsh and a flame. I didn't mean it to be. I read it, I like it, I honestly do, I just said those things because I knew it could be better. But if you found to harsh, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Can you forgive me?

**Ranger Belle:** Unintentional fluff for the win! I can understand how you would see Ben as rash and clumsy (maybe even cocky). To be honest that was what he was originally going to be like in the story, but it was so annoying for me to write him that way that I scrapped the idea and made it so he's based of my older brother slightly (yes, I have an older brother and we get along, gasp, egad it the end of the world). And I finaly got around to putting Pichu back in, I keep forgetting about him for some reason.

**Blossomlight907: **Well... here's your update. I'm glad you like the story, but it can't be that good. *holds hands up in defeat* But you know what, I'm not going to argue. Thanks. I hope you enjoy the rest.

**Word count: **2,703 words(slightly long chapter as an apology)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pokemon its Nintendo's property, I am not Nintendo, I am Ember.

XoXoXoX

**Chapter 12**

**Crystal Essence**

When I went to stand up Ben grabbed my arm. He probably thought I'd fall or something, though since only one of my legs were currently working, I'd probably need it. Even still I gave him a hard look and shook off his hands, wanting to try and stand on my own. It worked, sure all my weight was on my leg, but I was standing at least. Slowly I took a step forward, and stumbled, I would have fallen on my face if Ben hadn't grabbed my arm again. "Take it easy. You don't want to hurt yourself again do you?"

With a sigh I looked at him and frowned slightly, disappointed with myself. "No, but still, it never hurts to try, right?"

"It does if you land on your face." He replied.

"It wouldn't have been that bad." I started raising my voice slightly "What's the worst that could've happened?"

Ben closed his eyes and shock his head, but he didn't reply back on the subject, maybe he didn't want to start an agreement. I didn't know; I just knew he said "Come on, let's go." He sounded like he disagreed with the idea –and he probably did- but he was doing it anyway.

He pulled the arm he was holding onto over his head so that it rested on his shoulders. Well… I was standing, sure he thought I needed help but at least he hadn't confined me to the bed. I turned my head and looked at Ben before turning away, looking at the floor. Pichu was by my right leg and I could see the slightly red bandage wrapped around my lower leg, three inches below the knee. A single spot was stained deep red near the center of the bandage facing inward, towards my left leg, and it throbbed slightly in irritation. "Pichu, chu pi pichu chu." The tiny mouse Pokémon was probably telling me to take it easy, but I had other, more important things, to do.

Ben took a step forward and that got me moving. As much as I didn't want the help, it was either that or stay in bed. Neither of them seemed really appealing, but being able to move with help was the lesser of two evils. The two of us walked forward, or limped in my case, slowly. I just wanted to get out of the room as quick as possible, who knows what World's End could have done while I was out. But Ben didn't seem to mind it. If anything he seemed like he was enjoying the fact that we were moving slow, like he was secretly hoping I'd lose patience and say that I'd stay in the bed. Well, we'll just see how well that idea works for him.

It felt like it took _forever_ just to reach the door, but I didn't say a word, and Ben hadn't prompted me into trying to say something. When Ben opened the door showing me the interior of Rand's home, bookshelves against the wall, a small table and rug in the middle of the room. It was a simple, but efficient set up. Pichu immediately started running around the room happily, brown eyes closed in joy. Maybe he was happy he could run around? He always had been an energetic little guy. In truth, I'd never really know. That little Pokémon was as much of a mystery to me as I was to him. Besides, it wasn't my business, so I had no reason to look into it.

We were quiet, the only sound in the entire house came from upstairs, so it was fairly easy to guess where he was taking me. That was when I noticed it was raining. Water droplets falling silent and quick to the point where if you didn't look or listen carefully enough you would never know it. Wind caused the trees to sway and leaves to fall from pressure against a dark sky. Not that it mattered much, in about a month it would be fall.

Ben had stopped at the steps causing me to stop as well; my leg was still throbbing slightly, but not as much as it had been before. "You sure about this?" I rolled my eyes, sure one of my legs couldn't support my weight, but I have another _and_ he's helping me even though I don't like it. I was fine, why didn't he get that?

"I'll be fine." My voice was firm and my brown eyes locked with his. "Honestly, Ben, you're helping me and it's not like both my legs are broken. I just have a flesh wound on my right leg. No big deal." Part of me knows that his definition of a "flesh wound" was different than mine, and that he would worry anyway. But I felt like I had to say it.

He raised an eyebrow before saying "If you say so Summer." And then he went silent. Something that surprised me, I thought for sure he'd be arguing with me… then again… maybe he finally figured out that I would just keep saying I'm fine and refuse to admit that I wasn't according to his standards. We started to move again, this time upstairs. The whole way I was tripping and stumbling. Ben kept looking at me, his eyes almost silently pleading for me to just accept the fact that I wasn't okay and I needed rest or help. No. This was a challenge, I accepted it just like any other challenge he would give me. I wouldn't ask for help, that would mean accepting failure, and I was _not_ going to fail such a simple challenge.

Eventually we reached the top, and I could swear everyone up there was looking at us; probably because they were, come on, we (I, whatever), couldn't have made _that_ much noise. Once we were on flat ground I gave Ben this look that said what I was thinking _told you I'd be fine_. Rand was walking towards us, he pat me on the shoulder said he was glad to see me awake and moving around before saying he had something to take care of and left; my eyes followed him until he was out of sight. I don't know why I did it, but I did. Then my gaze moved over to the Professor and Leanne, as though they had spontaneously decided that what was going on in front me was more interesting, which it probably was. When I smiled at them, and they just sort of stared. Somewhere my brain was telling me to say "don't you know its rude to stare" but I resisted the urge to actually say it.

Silence descended in the room and took control without even a fight. I would have shifted my weight if my right leg wasn't currently out of order. A few minutes later someone spoke. "Well are you going to speak up or not? There was a reason why you came up here and it wasn't to stand around staring at us." I nodded, not bothering to speak. "I guess you want to hear what progress has been made? After all that was what this whole meeting was originally about until Rand had to go out." Another nod. "Well why didn't you say so? Come now, Leanne will you please start?" The Professor had phrased it as a question, but I think all of us knew that it really wasn't.

She nodded, knowing her queue to speak as though they had rehearsed it as actors would do for a play. "Where to start…" I thought for sure someone would have responded by saying "at the beginning" but no one spoke. "Well… very little is known for about the shards that are facts. Those who do know about it aren't willing to speak of it for the most part. Though from what I could gather the crystal shards are artifacts that are spread throughout the regions of Kanto, Johto and Obliva." Great, so far its only information I already know. This would be interesting. "Within each region there is on real shard and multiple frauds, the shards are assigned a legendary Pokémon to guard it." I nodded and so did Ben. To be honest I sort of had that part figured out when World's End said they weren't sure it the one they found was real or fake, come on, I wasn't stupid.

"I also learned. That the three real shards are parts of a whole. And when brought together they reveal the location of an item known as the crystal essence." Crystal essence… why did that sound so familiar? I know I hadn't heard it before now… yet… why do I feel like I have…? Maybe it's my imagination, no; I've heard of it before there is no way I could be imagining that. "The only way to the real and fake shards is to find them and bring them together. What happens to the frauds is unknown, but the real ones, as I've said, will show the crystal essence's location.

Some say that it is like a parasite, hiding away in the body of an unknowing host, one who might not know it for their entire life. When the real shards are found there are side effects to the host, though they are unknown or just unstated with this theory." It felt like some part of my brain was agreeing with that theory, as though it knew it was true, it was like someone was sending signals into my brain telling me what to think. I didn't like it. "Others say it is a vapor that floats around a single area constantly shifting and shining brighter than any star in the night sky giving off a blinding white aura. Though from what I've read, it seems like more people believe the host theory.

As for what it does… well, I could only find guesses, quick passing comments on a page that were only a sentence long. Though I've found two of them that have occurred the most. One says that since it is guarded by the legendary Pokémon that it must be able to do something to them." Again I felt that signal light going off in my brain. This was getting weird, why did it feel so familiar. All this information should be new to me, shouldn't it? So why… maybe I just shouldn't even try to question it because it just seems to be confusing more than anything else. "The other says it is a powerful force that can destroy an entire region." My eyes widened in shock. Even though somewhere in my brain I knew it was wrong it was pushed aside and replaced with terror. What if it did actually do that? But I know it doesn't. Should I say something? Or just remain quiet and keep the information to myself? I didn't… I didn't know what to do, what to think, nothing. It was that awkward moment when you knew you should speak up, but you're in too much shock to do so. If it did actually do that… and World's End got a hold of it… oh god no.

"So… either way it doesn't look good for us if they get a hold of it." Ben concluded.

Leanne nodded "While I can't say for sure which it really is, both options could easily bring about mass destruction."

That was what did it. I had to speak up, and I had to speak now. "I-I think that I know-" I was cut off before I could even finish.

"We must stop them at once. Ben you go and search for them. Summer you should stay here." Professor Hastings had said it. And that was what pushed me over the edge.

"Look" I began "I don't care what you say Professor, but I'm doing this to. I'm in this as much as Ben, you and Leanne are; so don't even think about going and telling me to stay behind. I have one bad leg, so what? It'll be quicker to find the shards if I come along and search as well. I know what I'm doing; I'm not some child, Professor! If it's so important that these shards are found shouldn't more than one person be looking for them? I'm going to help out, Professor, whether you approve of it or not, I'm a ranger this is my job, and I'm not going to have anyone tell me otherwise." They looked shocked, all of them, I could see it in their eyes. Even Ben who was right next to me, I could still see the surprise in his eyes slowly turning into a disapproving amusement. He probably saw some of that coming, maybe not the fact that it was an entire mini rant, but he saw some of it coming.

Pichu was holding onto my leg with a death grip and I had only just realized it. Probably because I was so absorbed in what I was saying and he was as quiet as a thief in the night when he wanted to be. His eyes were somewhat pleading in their own way, like he didn't want me to go, something I could understand. When I looked at Ben, he looked at me. Our eyes met easily, but he had masked them to show no emotion. "Summer" he started, his voice was harsh, commanding, showing hidden worry and disapproval. "Think about something for once in your life instead of just running headfirst into it. You only just woke up like thirty minutes ago and you still can't walk right yet."

A growl formed in my throat but I didn't let it out. "I'm fine."

"Summer, you really should take it easy for a while."

"I'm fine, Ben."

"You always say that! Will you stop being so-"

I interrupted him, I knew what he was going to say, and I didn't care that I snapped at him saying "Stubborn? I don't care, Ben! I'm fine! You don't have to treat me like a child! I'm thirteen; I can take care of myself! What do you not understand about that?!" I quickly ducked under his arm and twirled away using my good leg, though I had to hide a wince. Once that was done I stood up straight, my right leg throbbing slightly in irritation, and looked him in the eye. "See I can support my own weight for now and worst comes to worst I have to use crutches."

The look on Ben's face… I didn't know what to make of it, he looked angry, but hurt. I couldn't have been that harsh, and at this point Ben knew that I wasn't the best when it came to controlling my anger. He sighed "Whatever you say, Summer, whatever you say." After taking a few extremely careful steps forward, feeling a small sense of victory when I hadn't fallen on my face or back, I hugged the kid. It was something Teran always did with me after being unintentionally harsh, he always thought hugs made up for it.

Once I let go I took a few steps back, once again glad I didn't fall onto the ground. "Come on, we should get going." With that said I carefully moved away and walked (limped) away, down the steps and outside with Pichu following behind.

Little did I know that this time, a time that should have been like any other trip I've taken,, was going to turn my entire world upside down.

XoXoXoX

Congradulations, you'e just been plot dumped, you all knew this was going to happen eventually. I'm so sorry, about how late this update is. But at least it's up now. As for when chapter 13 will be up... heck if I know. I have part of it written, but I haven't had anytime to continue what I've got. But I won't abandon this story unless I go absolutly brain dead with it. And when that happens I'll let you guys know the entire plot(which I actually have written in a word document somewhere) to atempt and make up for it. Hopefully it won't come to that though.

See ya'll around,

Ember


	14. Author's Note and Prieview

Hey guys,

I'm so so so sorry for taking so long to update, it's just that with school and everything else that's going on in my life right now I'm having trouble finding the time, or the will to sit down and type the next chapter. The worst part is, I have almost all of it written, but I can get myself to type it. I try to, I really do, but I keep getting distracted by other things. I know it sounds like I'm making up excuses, but it's true. I want to finish this, I have the plot down and I know the basics of what I want to happen soon. I just don't have the will right now to type up chapter 13. However, since I do have most of it written down, (and a part of it typed up) I want to give you guys a preview of the chapter. So I'll do that bellow this huge apology note. I just want to thank you guys for being just awesome and enjoying the story, and I wish I could give you the entire chapter right now but it's not ready yet. I hope I'll be able to post the entire chapter soon, but I can't guarantee it will be before March.

I'm so sorry,

Ember

XoXoXoX

A preview of chapter 13

Latias was doing flips and rolls while the full moon reflected on the ocean bellow, I think she was trying to cheer me up, and, while it did give me a slight headache, she did manage to get me to smile. Riding Latias was the closest thing I'd ever get to flying, and, to me, flying was the closest thing I'd ever get to freedom. The way the wind blew across my skin; the way it whipped my hair into my goggles; the way it made my scarf billow out behind me and the way it seemed to move around me… I loved it. It made any concern I ever had just drift away and fall to earth. All in all… it made me feel… it made me feel like the little girl who would laugh and play with her brother, a little girl who didn't have a care in the world. The girl I used to be. I shook my head, that girl died a long time ago. That girl doesn't exist anymore.

Laughter filled the air light, loud, wonderful laughter. I didn't even realize for a second that it was coming from me. For a second it seemed like the idea that Ben wasn't there with me seemed… I don't know how to describe it… relieving, I guess. I don't know… something was telling me that something would happen, and that it was a good thing that he wasn't here because he might get hurt. It's that feeling you get when you leave on your own to find something and then you get caught up in something crazy and you're just so glad that no one you know has the chance of getting hurt by it. But it was also like a part of my brain was saying "Hey, something bad is going to happen, but you know what? We should go anyway!" I could almost hear Ben saying that I should reconsider my options. He was worried about me, I get that. And… deep down inside, I really appreciate it, but he needs to understand that I'm not a little girl. I don't need someone looking over my shoulder; I haven't since Teran left…

I felt something roll down my check. Was I… crying? Sure I miss him… but it's been at least four years ago that he left to become a trainer… about four years after dad died. A sigh came out of my parted lips, and I raised my right arm to wipe my face. Teran never was the same after we found out what happened to dad… then again… I wasn't either… and mom defiantly wasn't the same after that night…

XoXoXoX

It had been just like any other day, Teran and I were running around the outskirts of Pallet Town; not really caring that the wild pokémon roamed in the grassier areas and occasionally walked out to show themselves to the world. We were laughing, the sky was a clear baby blue and the sun warmed the air to just the right temperature –not to hot, not to cold, not to humid, not to windy- something that was rare for a mid-summer day. I can still hear my brother's taunting voice saying "You can't catch me, Sum!"

"Oh yes I can!" I yelled back, refusing to let him get the better of me. He would always either call me Sis or Sum back then; sometimes he'd call me Summer, but it was rare. It took a while, but I did catch up with him, and I tackled him to the ground. Both of us were laughing, rolling around on the soft green grass until I got on top of him and we were facing face to face. I placed my head down on his chest and he wrapped his arms around me. We stayed like that for a while, minutes felt like seconds and hours felt like minutes. To me, it was perfect. Teran was there, I was there with him and the pokémon ran around us happily, that was all I ever needed.


	15. Chapter 13: Memories

Hey guys I finally got around to updating, hurray! I just want to say thanks for being so patcient with me, my life has been so hecktic lately, not to mention I've been on my deviantart page a lot more recently. Anyway, let's get straight to answering the reviews and then the story!

**RangerTakara:** Oops... you see... I thought you hadn't forgave me, hence why I kept saying sorry. Sometimes I can just be really dense, I have no excuse for that. And I have to agree with you about Summer, it really wasn't right, stubborn or not. But, in a way, it sort of makes her a bit more realistic, as bad aas it may be. A lot of people don't watch what they're saying when they're mad, and they don't realize they could be hurting that person until after they calm down. Like I said, it isn't nice, but it's just the way people are.

**Blossomlight907:** It's great to hear you've made some stories, and I'm glad you enjoy mine. I'll have to take a look at yours someday when things aren't to buisy for me.

**BrokenBlackCat:** First off, awsome penname. Secondly, I'm really glad you're enjoying the story so far.

**A Random Human:** That does not sound fun. I hope everything worked out.

**Ranger Belle:** No, I'm not dead. I wasn't mulled by a bear... and I probably shouldn't say this... but... I live in a rural area nearby the woods, and I've seen bears in my yard a few times. So me getting mulled by one is actually possible considering where I live. Also, I never really noticed the difference between my writing style and other styles of writing on this site, but I'll take your word for it.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Pokemon, if I did, Max would be less annoying and Ash would be a little less stupid (I love Ash, but he can be so dumb most of the time)

**Word Count: **6,694 (extra chapter this time because I didn't want to split it apart into multiple chapters)

XoXoXoXoX

**Chapter 13**

**Memories**

When I got outside I quickly called Latias and carefully climbed onto her back. I figured Ben would follow behind soon enough, probably to yell at me for being so brash. Maybe I should say sorry. After all I was pretty harsh. But we lost three days of searching for those shards. If World's End got the three real ones and found the crystal essence thing who knows what could happen. Still… guess that didn't excuse my actions. Looking back on it now… I should have gone in and said sorry and waited 'til morning to search again. At the time though I was just so aggravated that they were treating me as though I couldn't take care of myself and telling me what to do(even though Hastings is my boss and it's his job) I just didn't care. If anything I just wanted to get the whole investigation over with. For some reason it felt like it was hitting to close to home for comfort, if you know what I mean.

About fifth teen minutes later and Ben hadn't come, and I could tell Latias was getting bored. I considered staying and just going in to talk to them, but it only crossed my mind once, and it didn't seem like a good idea. It was still raining slightly, not that I minded, I like the rain. When I was younger I'd stare out my window and dream of the things I could do when I was ten. Day dreaming was sort of one way I escaped the occasional loneliness I'd end up stuck in. Sometimes I'd draw, sometimes I'd write, but nothing worked better than just letting my mind wonder. And no matter what I'd always end up oddly… happy, I guess.

Patting Latias' neck I looked to the sky, the endless black and the rain hit my face. Pichu was on my lap, curled up and his eyes were closed. "Come on, we should get going." I whisper. Gently I pick up Pichu, climb of Latias, and place him on the grass bellow where the red legend hovered, I doubted he would like the fact I left him behind again, but I don't want to lose him. He reminded me of another Pichu I had when I was younger, that Pichu ran away before I went off to Ranger School… I never found him.

Carefully I climbed back onto her back, ignoring the occasional pain that shot through my body if I moved my leg the wrong way. It defiantly wasn't easy, but I managed. Though I still wonder how I got on without Latias having to help me because she was getting impatient. Once I was on though, she took off without a single word having to be said. She did seem a little upset though… maybe it was because I wasn't acting like myself… I'd never know. Sixteen words left my mouth and were left to float in the ever quickening airflow around me "Sorry, Ben, I shouldn't have said what I did, but this needs to get this done…." I just wanted to get this job done… for some reason it felt like it was hitting to close to home. Maybe it was because they were also operating in Kanto and I still felt connected to my old home. I don't know, I just knew that this mission had to be finished.

If only I hadn't left on my own, then maybe I wouldn't be in the mess I'm in now.

Latias was doing flips and rolls while the full moon reflected on the ocean bellow, I think she was trying to cheer me up, and, while it did give me a slight headache, she did manage to get me to smile. Riding Latias was the closest thing I'd ever get to flying, and, to me, flying was the closest thing I'd ever get to freedom. The way the wind blew across my skin; the way it whipped my hair into my goggles; the way it made my scarf billow out behind me and the way it seemed to move around me… I loved it. It made any concern I ever had just drift away and fall to earth. All in all… it made me feel… it made me feel like the little girl who would laugh and play with her brother, a little girl who didn't have a care in the world. The girl I used to be. I shook my head, that girl died a long time ago. That girl doesn't exist anymore.

Laughter filled the air light, loud, wonderful laughter. I didn't even realize for a second that it was coming from me. For a second it seemed like the idea that Ben wasn't there with me seemed… I don't know how to describe it… relieving, I guess. I don't know… something was telling me that something would happen, and that it was a good thing that he wasn't here because he might get hurt. It's that feeling you get when you leave on your own to find something and then you get caught up in something crazy and you're just so glad that no one you know has the chance of getting hurt by it. But it was also like a part of my brain was saying "Hey, something bad is going to happen, but you know what? We should go anyway!" I could almost hear Ben saying that I should reconsider my options. He was worried about me, I get that. And… deep down inside, I really appreciate it, but he needs to understand that I'm not a little girl. I don't need someone looking over my shoulder; I haven't since Teran left…

I felt something roll down my check. Was I… crying? Sure I miss him… but it's been at least four years ago that he left to become a trainer… about four years after dad died. A sigh came out of my parted lips, and I raised my right arm to wipe my face. Teran never was the same after we found out what happened to dad… then again… I wasn't either… and mom defiantly wasn't the same after that night…

XoXoXoX

It had been just like any other day, Teran and I were running around the outskirts of Pallet Town; not really caring that the wild pokémon roamed in the grassier areas and occasionally walked out to show themselves to the world. We were laughing, the sky was a clear baby blueand the sun warmed the air to just the right temperature –not to hot, not to cold, not to humid, not to windy- something that was rare for a mid-summer day. I can still hear my brother's taunting voice saying "You can't catch me, Sum!"

"Oh yes I can!" I yelled back, refusing to let him get the better of me. He would always either call me Sis or Sum back then; sometimes he'd call me Summer, but it was rare. It took a while, but I did catch up with him, and I tackled him to the ground. Both of us were laughing, rolling around on the soft green grass until I got on top of him and we were facing face to face. I placed my head down on his chest and he wrapped his arms around me. We stayed like that for a while, minutes felt like seconds and hours felt like minutes. To me, it was perfect. Teran was there, I was there with him and the pokémon ran around us happily, that was all I ever needed.

But we both knew it would never last, the only difference was that I chose to ignore it. I focused on the fact that I was lying on top of my brother and listening to the sound of the pokémon running and enjoying themselves. Their laughter was like music to me. Even back then I knew I would want to protect them and their happiness, seeing them happy made me happy. "Sum," My brother voice was calm, peaceful, loving. I nuzzled my face into his chest and I felt him run his hand through my hair and I heard him chuckle. "Come on, Sum, we probably should go home. It's getting late, about six o'clock pm if I'm guessing right. Mom'll be home in about an hour, and you know how she gets if we aren't there when she gets back."

The thought made me chuckle. Mom was always a worry wart, mostly when it comes to the things that 'I' drag Teran into. I always knew she cared about my brother a little more than me, I never cared. To me, it didn't matter. Memories of all the things that 'I' dragged Teran into ran through my brain. The time I was swimming in the river while he was watching and I pulled him in insisting it'll be more fun. The time I managed to convince him to take me to Viridian City so I can get a feeling of what would be in store for me if I turned into a pokémon trainer. The time we snuck away from mom to so we could see the ocean, the blue green waves foaming and crashing against the sand that got into our shoes and in between our toes. The time he managed to make wooden swords and we play fought in the backyard (I lost, but he never held it against me), laughing as the sound of wood hitting wood banged through the otherwise still air. At one point we'd even managed to hold a tournament were the other kids in the town could join us (it was a huge success, no real injuries other than a few bruises) a kid named Red had just barely beat my brother, the look on Red's face was priceless when all he got out of it was bragging rights (which he never used) and a chocolate bar. And when mom found us after each and every one of the things we'd try, she'd ask if we were okay and when we got home she'd send me to my room and talk to Teran for about an hour. I never knew what they'd talk about, and Teran would never tell me. All I'd know is that when I'd see him again he'd have this sad look on this face for the next few days and we wouldn't talk to me as much.

"Alright." I whispered disappointment evident in my almost inaudible voice. Slowly I rolled off him and quickly rose to my feat. Looking behind me I saw Teran getting up and dusting himself off. I hadn't noticed before, but the sky had turned deep green, a summer's twilight sky. He walked over to me and I grabbed his bare arm. He'd been wearing a dark brown t-shirt, greenish gray shorts with almost black brown sneakers; his hair was dark brown and went to the bottom of his neck before spiking out into different angles. His eyes were chocolate brown and shone with gentleness, love and peace… things I wouldn't see in his eyes ever again and he smelled like the trees in Viridian Forest, a mixture of oak and birch.

We walked home together, to our tiny house only two houses away from the Pokémon Lab, the professor there had always been a good friend to Teran and I, but we… I was hardly ever allowed to see him. I didn't have a problem with that though. The house itself was only two stories, was a creamy white with a mahogany brown roof, a small garden was off to the side and the river was just west of us.

The river, that was my favorite part of living where we did. Watching the sunrise reflect off the water was mesmerizing and seeing the water flow around the rocks was mystifying. Maybe I was just weird, but I knew I wasn't alone in thinking that. One of my friends, I think he was Red's younger brother, Ash, that was what is name was… I think, he liked to sit with me and watch the water as well. Then again, we both weren't the most popular kids. For Ash, his older brother always over shadowed him, he even told me once he'd never be able to step out of his brother's shadow, so he would try acting silly to try and separate himself from his brother. For me, mom generally didn't like it when I talked to the other kids, but she didn't mind that Ash was my friend.

The house was empty when we walked in, my hand still on Teran's arm, only to let go the moment I stepped into the hallway. He turned to the right, towards his bedroom, while I headed to the kitchen to start making dinner. It was something I grew up doing once mom got her job at the Pokémon Center in Viridian City to try and help dad pay the bills. Teran didn't complain, he said I was better than him, and after having him cook one night I agreed with him whole heartedly. Mom couldn't do it because as soon as she got home she just wanted to go to sleep. As for dad, he usually didn't come home until ten at night because he worked with Officer Jenny.

As soon as I got to the kitchen I looked at the clock six thirty, mom usually got home around seven, so I might have enough time to make pasta or something simple. In the end, I went to the cabinet and grabbed a box of pasta and then went to grab a pot. The sound of water hitting metal filled the air for a few seconds before I put the pot onto the stove to get it to boil. That's when I heard Teran play his guitar. I could just barely make out the tune, it was a song called Rainbow Connection. Mom and dad showed us a movie and the intro was that song, that night Teran had tried to figure out how to play it, with little to no success. Now, a month later, he could play it perfectly.

Humming the lyrics as they slowly came into my mind I was taken out of my world when the hissing and bubbling of steaming water fell onto my ears. With a sigh I grabbed the pasta and poured it into the water, then fetched a wooden spoon and began to stir the mixture, wishing I could go back into my imagination but being unable to. About ten minutes later I fished out one of the pieces of pasta and ate it to see if it was still stale. The plain taste in my mouth was normal, and it didn't crunch when I bit down on it. Deciding it was done cooking I turned off the burner and pushed the pot off to the side to take out a strainer and another pot and placed them into the sink.

Taking the full pot of pasta I poured it into the strainer; looking at the clock, seven o'clock, mom still wasn't home. Maybe I had enough time to make a sauce or something so the meal wasn't so bland. At least, that's what I hoped when I took the now empty pasta pot and placed it back onto the stove. Going into the fridge I grabbed what I would need and quickly threw together a sauce. By the time I was all done, Teran had played about five different songs and it was seven twenty. Ambling to where the dishes were held I grabbed two, not expecting mom to be hungry as soon as she got back.

After serving the portions and putting them on the table I called Teran out of his room. Dinner was silent, as usual and went by quickly. That's when the sound of the door opening and closing reached our ears. We looked at each other and he smiled at me before we both stood up and walked to the door.

What I saw wasn't something I wanted to see again.

It was mom, like I thought it would be, but… she looked different. I walked up to her and looked at her quizzically. Her eyes, normally a bright gold, were a dark amber and slightly red. Her black hair, which was usually in a tight bun, was down and disheveled, falling into her eyes. I thought that maybe she had just had a bad day at work, it was always possible since she didn't really love going there like Nurse Joy did. She walked up to me and gently pushed me out of the way as she went to sit on the couch that was facing the TV before burying her face in her hands. A sob filled the air, and that's when I knew it wasn't just another bad day at work.

Something had happened, and I wanted to know what. "Mom…" I muttered; I wasn't given any response "Mom." I said again, a little louder than before, causing her to look at me. Not once in my life had I ever seen her look this way before. She looked so… broken. Her face was wet and her eyeliner was running slightly making her checks look grey. "Is everything okay?" She didn't give me any response. Carefully I moved over to mom and hugged her, only to have her push me away and holler at me to go to my room.

I looked to Teran, and he just nodded mouthing "Just do it, Sum. I'll figure out what's going on." With a nod, I left. Most kids would have argued or fought insisting on staying, not me. I just went. Down the tan colored halls and up the carpeted stairs, only to stop at a plain oak door that was in between to paintings.

"Pichu?" The small voice coming through the door made me smile.

"So that's where you've been, Sparkle." I sighed opening the door and the small pichu ran up and jumped into my open arms. Hugging him I walked into the room and sat on the bed. Laying on my side I curled up around the yellow pokémon and she looked at me as though wanting to ask me what was wrong. "Something's wrong with mom, Sparkle. I'm scared…" The last part came out as a low whisper. She nuzzled into to me, trying to make me feel a little better, only slightly succeeding.

My room was fairly simple. A twin bed with dark blue covers, and off white pillow, an oak nightstand that was painted gray stood to the left of the bed. It had one small drawer and a single picture that was of mom, dad, Teran, Sparkle and I in front of the house smiling. The walls were navy blue and had drawings of pokémon covering them, the carpet was gray. A small desk was off to the side, in front of a small window held a cluster of blank paper, books, pencils and colored pencils and a book self was packed with fantasy and science fiction novels was just to the right of it. Sparkle's basket was a simple white pillow with a black blanket was at the foot of my bed.

Closing my eyes I tried to forget what mom looked like and hoped that Teran would tell me what had happened in the morning. Within minutes I had fallen into a peaceful oblivion that I would wake up from when the sun rose the next day with its warm rays hitting my face.

When I woke up, Sparkles was still against my chest and I was still curled around him. The only difference was that someone had taken a sand colored blanket from downstairs and placed it over me. I got up slowly, not wanting to wake the small creator from its sleep. Maybe Teran had come up to tell me what happened, but saw I was a sleep so he went back downstairs to get a blanket for me. Ya… that sounded like something he would do.

Walking down the stairs I could hear people talking in the kitchen, something that was rare considering mom and dad were usually away by now and Teran generally doesn't wake up until noon. Slowly I walked up to the entry way, and mom was standing at the stove and Teran was at the table. "I still don't believe you, mom." Teran stated, though it sounded like he was doubting himself.

"It's true though." Mom countered, her voice was low, filled with regret and despair. "He's gone, and he won't be coming back. Just accept it, sweetie. Don't make it harder on yourself than it already is." That's when I got confused. I understood what she was implying when she said 'he won't be coming back,' that was easy, but that didn't mean I could hope my mind was just taking it the wrong way. Death. Someone had died last night. Deep inside I hoped that it wasn't someone from Pallet, that it wasn't someone I knew. And yet, something was telling me to stop being ridiculous, that it would be someone I knew because that's just how bad my luck is.

I didn't speak up. I had a feeling that if I did they would change the subject. They hadn't noticed me yet, so I stepped to the side so I was behind the wall. "He's not gone, mom, he can't be." Teran sounded angry this time. "He's alive, mom! He has to be…" The last part was quieter, as if he were trying to convince himself of it more than anyone else.

There was a sigh "Teran, he's gone. You're not the only one who didn't want to find out he's dead. Do you think I wanted him gone?" Mom didn't give him any time to answer "No, I didn't. But we have to accept it."

My brother growled "Fine. But at least tell Summer." Summer, he used my full name. Sure,mom always hated it when he called me Sum, but that doesn't mean he didn't. In fact, when I thought about it, he only ever used my full name when he had something important to tell me. "She has as much right to know what happened as I did."

That's when me and my infinite wisdom (and by infinite wisdom, I mean stupidity) decided it sounded like a good time to step in. "Tell me what?" It was a simple question, and one I hoped to get an answer from. Mom looked at me, and shock her head before walking past me.

"If you want her to know so much," She said "Then you can tell her." And with that,mom walked down the hall and into her and dad's bedroom.

I asked the question again. "Tell me what?" Teran looked at me and sighed, shaking his head. "Teran, what's going on?" He muttered something under his breath. "Look, I heard what you and mom were saying, someone died last night. Who was it?"

Surprise flashed across his brown eyes at that statement before he exclaimed "Gosh dang it, Summer!" Shaking his head, he tried to calm himself down. "Sorry, I'm just really stressed right now. Alright." I nodded. "Well, come one, Summer. You're going to want to sit down next to me for this." Another nod. Anxiously I walked up to him and scooted over so I could sit with him.

"So." I stated. With a sigh he muttered something under his breath. "Um… would it be bad for me to ask if you could repeat that?" Teran shock his head.

"Dad's dead, Summer." I looked at him, and all I saw was a numbing pain in his eyes. I couldn't believe it. Dad couldn't be dead.

"Wha… how…?"

"Look, I don't know all the details. But apparently dad was going against some Team Rocket goons and one of the goons pokémon attacked him instead of his growthe." I still didn't believe it. My dad died; because of Team Rocket… no… he died because of an accident. That had to be it. The goons couldn't have meant to hit him, right? Right? My mind was reeling, what was going to happen now?

"But… he…" I felt myself be pulled into my brother's shoulder. But… I didn't feel like I had to cry… if anything… I just felt… numb. Shouldn't I be bawling my eyes out? My dad, one of two people in my family who actually support me, was dead. My dad, who was willing to let me become a ranger if it was my dream and would have cheered me on the whole way through, was dead. My dad, who would talk to me about the world and all the things he'd seen, was dead. He was dead. Gone. Going to go six feet under the ground. I'd never hear his laugh, I'd never see him smile, I'd never feel his hand grip my shoulder or have him hug me if I was still awake when he got home.

For the next few days, I didn't talk. Sparkle tried cheering me up, and Ash kept asking me what's wrong so he could try and make me feel better. I wouldn't smile or say a single; I'd just look at them with sad eyes. But not once did I cry, no… I just felt… empty, like something was missing from my life. I could only imagine how mom and Teran felt.

Teran had stayed in his room more often than not, strumming his guitar and humming to himself. He had talked to Red about what happened two nights after he found out about dad. After that, he seemed more… at peace… I guess. I can't really describe it. Whenever he looked at me, he'd give me this almost pitying look. I didn't like it. Sure I was the youngest, but I didn't want… I didn't need his pity. Besides… I was more worried about him. I never knew how close he and dad were, but that didn't matter. He was my older brother, and even though it isn't in the younger siblings job description to be worried about the older, I was. I loved him. He was a part of my family, just like mom and just like dad… was….

Mom probably took it the worst; she stopped working for a while. Using the vacation days she had saved up over the years. She wouldn't look at my brother and I. And if she did look at me, what I saw hurt. Her broken amber eyes were full of anguish and another emotion that I couldn't understand, hate. What was there to hate? The Team Rocket goons? The goons pokémon? Dad for joining the police? The pokémon for killing dad accidentally? It just didn't make sense to me.

A week after I found out, the funeral was held. The priest said the prayers, and my family and work members spoke about dad. How he was always kind. How he would never let a crime go unpunished. How he loved to make jokes to lighten the atmosphere and nobody could do it quite like him. How he was a brilliant strategist and knew how to keep a level head in combat. How he was the type of guy who you could always go to with a problem and he'd help you out.

Not once did I cry. It was almost like I couldn't. Even when I saw his body in the casket. He was wearing his uniform which was cleanly pressed and the badges he had earned adorned the area around the pocket. His milk chocolate brown hair combed back neatly, his bark brown eyes closed and his hands folded onto his chest. This wasn't my dad. My dad never kept his hair so well groomed, it was always sticking out and disheveled. My dad never wore the badges he earned, saying that his pokémon had earned them, not him. And even when my dad was asleep, he was never so still. No, this wasn't the dad I remember. This was someone else.

I wouldn't say anything though. Instead, I opted for staring at the photographs and flowers that had been placed around him. The funeral itself was outside, dad would like that. He always loved being outside and would smile whenever the wind blew though his hair. It was his way of calming down. As the wind blew, I could feel my black dress sway and my straightened hair flow away from my back. Everything from the outside world seemed to fade as I focused in on one picture.

It was a picture of the family. We were by the river, on one of the docks. I was sitting down, my legs dangling over the edge and Sparkles was on my lap, a large goofy smile was on my face. Teran was to the right of me, standing up with his hand on my shoulder, he was smiling to, his wasn't as goofy as mine, his was genuine, as though he loved being there. Mom and dad were behind us. Dad had his arm wrapped around mom and he had this serine look on his face, as though he was just enjoying the breeze the was causing the water to crashing into the legs of the dock. Mom was smiling, though hers seemed slightly forced; it wasn't too noticeable, though. Mom was always happiest whenever dad was with her. In the background was the town, the sky was clear and you could just barely make out the spearow flying in the sky far off in the distance.

A hand on my should took my focus off the picture, it was mom. She had a look on her face that told me to move away, so, I did. I nodded and moved away. About an hour later, the coffin was being put into the ground. We'd never see dad again, and that's when it finally hit me full force. I cried, but my tears were silent, nobody noticed them. When the burial was over most people left. I just stood there, though, reading the tombstone over and over again.

**Here lies John Minami**

**1970- 2012**

**A good officer, a loving husband, a supportive father**

**"Justice will come if you give it enough time"**

**May he rest in peace**

When I went home that night, I didn't expect how much my life would change after that funeral.

Mom had started going back to work, and Teran still hung out in his room more often than not. As for me, I was still quiet, refusing to talk to anyone. However, I had started to smile more.

But it was at night when I noticed the largest change.

Mom stopped coming home around seven at night and instead came back around ten o'clock. I would hear the door open and I could hear what sounded like crashing. Everything I heard something fall to the floor I'd wince. That would continue for a few minutes until the house grew silent, and I always assumed it was because mom had gotten to bed. That the crashing was because it was dark and she was tired. That she came back later because she had to work a bit more.

It was about two months after the funeral that I found out just how wrong I was.

I had stayed up a little late that night. Something in me was saying that I missed seeing my mom every day, and, when I thought about it, I sort of did. I hardly ever saw my mom and Teran had distanced himself from me. Sure, Sparkles and Ash were always there to hang out with me, but I wanted to be with my family. Don't get me wrong, Sparkles is a part of my family, but I wanted human contact from my family. As weird as it sounds, I wanted to talk to a human from my family.

I stared at the floor as I sat on the couch waiting for mom to come back. As soon as the door opened my head rocketed up, and there was mom. Her face was sunken, amber eyes tired, her skin was slightly pale, it seemed as though her head was too heavy for her neck to hold up (as soon as she walked three steps her head fell to her chest) and it looked as though she had a hard time standing still because she swayed from side to side. Hesitantly I stood up from where I sat and asked "Mom… are you okay?" No response, the only sound came from our breathing. "Mom…?"

She raised her up, but it was almost like it was in slow motion. Her mouth moved, but I couldn't hear any noise come out. At least, that was until her voice started to work. "What're you doin' up, Summer?" It was slurred, as though she had just woken up from a deep sleep or had too much wine. That was when I smelt it though; it was the scent of strong alcohol, stale and it burned as it went through my nostrils. My mom was drunk.

And that actually scared me.

My mom was the person who would tell dad that drinking wouldn't stop his problems if he had a bad day. My mom was the one who always refused to drink any form of alcohol claiming it was because she would get aggressive. Yet here she was, drunk… and I was awake… things were piecing together in my mind… what if her claims about becoming aggressive when she's drunk were true? What if… what if she hurts me? She took a step towards me, and I saw her eyes, they were a burning gold, I couldn't tell what emotion was running through them though.

When took another step forward, I stepped back. One more step forward from her, I took one more back, forgetting about the couch behind me and falling on top of it. Mom took the opportunity and walked up to me, grabbing my arm just as I was about to get off the couch. She pulled me back down and I looked into her eyes again. This time I remember seeing anger and resentment in them.

After that, the rest of the night was a blur of noise and pain. I didn't even know what was happening. The first thing I can remember after the blur was laying on my bed, the sun shining in my face and Sparkles was lying on the pillow next to my head. Everything hurt, but the main focal points were my arms and head. I eased myself into a sitting position, hissing as my head swum and my right arm burned in pain. Apparently the shift in weight caused Sparkles to wake up, she raised her tiny head, brown eyes filled with worry. "Pichu, chu pi pichu pi pi chu." She might have been asking if I was okay, I wasn't really paying attention enough to hear the anxiety in her high pithed voice.

Taking a deep breath I looked into Sparkles eyes and tried to smile, but it came out as more of a wince. I had learned my lesson, never stay up waiting for mom again.

It would be only two years later that I learned not to tell mom about wanting to be a ranger.

By that time, mom had stopped drinking, but she still tended to be a little more aggressive than she used to. Teran had started his journey a year ago without telling me good-bye. I didn't hate him for that, I actually grew used to the fact that he hadn't talked to me the way we had before dad's death. We haven't done anything together since then, if I was totally honest. And… I missed it, but I didn't complain. I couldn't find it in me to complain.

I had walked up to my mom and started "I know what I want to do with my life…"

"Oh, and what's that?" She had asked in return.

"I want to be a Pokémon Ranger." The look on her face when I said that… I couldn't describe it. Next thing I know she was ranting, but I wasn't really paying any attention. Every now and then I'd pick up thing like dishonorable, unneeded, useless, not a good profession, blah, blah, blah. After five or six minutes I felt something hit my face. Once again, the rest is a haze. All I know is that by the end of it, I knew for certain mom hated the idea of me being a ranger, and that I was curled up in front of my father's grave.

How I got there, I'd never be completely sure. But it didn't matter to me. I mumbled something, but I couldn't remember what. What I do remember, is falling asleep at my dad's grave promising that I'd follow my dream, no matter what mom says about it.

XoXoXoXoX

A drop of rain it my face, taking me out of the memories. Shaking my head told myself to just leave all that behind me. The past is the past; I can't keep worrying about it. It's like Teran told me once "The past is like the knocking of an arrow, it is required, it's guided. What really matters is the aiming and firing of the arrow." Knocking an arrow is like the past, it's needed and you can't mess it up. Aiming is the present, and firing is the future. I was never one for archery, but I understood what he was telling me.

Latias called out to me and I looked at her, before smiling. "I guess we should land soon, huh, Latias."

The red legendary responded with a calm, yet still happy "La." With a chuckle I turned my head from left to right, trying to see what was closest to us. Sure enough, Latias' home in Oblivia was the closest place, Tilikule Island. It was small, but it'll do. After all, it's not like I'd be staying for too long.

"Maybe I should contact the others so they don't start worrying about me…" I whispered to the air before shaking my head "No. I'll be fine…" With a sigh I looked at the ocean as Latias began her descent "Still… maybe I should just say sorry… I could do it later… I doubt they'd want to talk to me right now considering I blew up at them the way I did."

My mind wondered as the air continued to blow my hair upward as Latias was going in for a landing, not even paying attention to what was going on top of the small landmass bellow.

XoXoXoXoX

Sorry that this was all just backstory, but it was neccessary. You have to understand Summer's relationship with her brother, it _will_ be important for later, trust me. Also, I'm sorry that her background is sounds so cliche. This is probably one of my worst chapters yet. I'm sorry I made you guys wait for months and have to get this. I might go back after the story is finished and edit this chapter some more. Oh... and... I may or may not be thinking about rewatching all of the episodes of the pokemon anime... so that'll eat up at least a month of my life. XD Anyway, that's all for now guys, I'll seen you soon.

Later,

Ember


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